Let's Just Pretend
by secretxsoul
Summary: How had things come to this? Draco felt his body freeze up instantly as he locked eyes with Harry from across the train station. The very person who he had not seen in almost two decades...
1. Chapter 1

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Prologue**

Sometimes, life just happens.

There's no reason for it and it's just the way it is.

You can't predict it and it's almost impossible to control.

Of course anyone is free to make plans for their future, plans that they strive to stick with, plans to live for, plans to abide by during the course of a person's life.

But the plans are just an outline of someone's hope, a wish to live in their ideal world.

We can make plans, but if life doesn't approve of them, then you're screwed, because in life, even in your own solitary life, there are other people making choices that control you.

It's like being controlled like a puppet supported by strings and sticks.

And while Draco and Harry were the puppets, there were many other people behind the scenes controlling how they moved for other people to see.

All controlled by the sly and cunning Life who always seemed to take a special interest in those closest to us.

How had things come to this? Draco felt his body freeze up instantly as he locked eyes with Harry from across the train station. The very person who he had not seen in almost two decades was now standing only a couple of feet away looking just as shocked as Draco himself felt.

It was cruel.

They had not seen each other, they had not written to each other, and they had tried their best to not think of each other, but they both held an intense desire to at least glance at the other person's face just once to douse the little potent fire burning inside of them which they could not do, which they refused to do.

And today, after all of the years of silent pain, silent questions, silent wistfulness, today in one tiny split second of chance, the two people had locked eyes with each other for the first time in 19 years causing a familiar feeling stirring slowly within the murky depths of their bowels.

How had things come to this? Harry locked eyes with the seemingly cool and calm looking man standing across from him at the train station filled with other people going about their own businesses. With every breath he took, his lungs grew heavy and it felt as if there were invisible weights dragging his chest down. It had been so long.

Years had passed.

Years had passed and both persons had managed to barely suppress the memories of the other's existence.

Barely.

It was a thing of the past, nothing else, and yet here they stood.

Opposite ends of the road, a hurricane passing through each of their hearts as their eyes locked onto each other. Old emotions now raw and dangerously potent because of their recent awakening from an almost eternal slumber swept through Harry and Draco as they stood rooted to their respective spots on the platform.

It was a curious feeling.

Such chaos and such craziness erupted from inside of them, but on the outside they were calm. It was like a storm had been crammed into a tiny glass bottle and forced to stay within the small confines of the container.

Why now?

Malfoy was the first one to acknowledge the other person with a slight nod of his head, and deeming that sufficient enough to greet Harry, he then turned to watch as his son silently make his way into the train that was about to depart in a few minutes.

And the moment was gone.

Just like that.

Harry blinked and looked away from the two people feeling his strength seep out of his bones, so that was it. He focused his attention on his kids and his godson clamber noisily into the metal train as it started up. He felt Ginny's hand slip into his own as they both waved to their kids with smiles on their faces.

Hogwarts.

The one word itself was able to bring back so many memories.

The one words itself was so powerful that he could actually feel his heart pulse and throb painfully.

Had he already grown this old?

Old enough to feel the fangs of nostalgia?

And as Harry watched the train slowly begin to build speed as it slowly began to pull away from the station, his mind began to slowly bring back memories of his past as he turned his back to the leaving train and walked away with Ginny and his daughter.

He could feel Draco's gaze lightly touching his back as he grew further and further away from the person that he had once given his all to.

The steam from the train filled the station giving it an eerie quality as the white vapor gently hid Harry from the slate grey eyes that Draco possessed, and once the steam cleared as a gust of wind blew through the now almost empty station, Harry was gone.

Disappeared, vanished, almost as if he had never been there in the first place.

Draco blinked once and turned to walk away from the station hand in hand with his wife. Memories of his past began to unfurl their great wings to fly.

They would lead the way, they would show Draco the images and memories that were so deeply and so elegantly engraved into the thick walls of his mind.

And as he took a breath of the cool air surrounding him, his thoughts pulled him back into the past and he could remember everything as clearly as if it had happened only a few days ago.

.-.

New storyyyy :] so what'd you guys think?

So prologue is done, I'm not sure what to think about this story-

To tell you guys the truth, I have so many things planned for this story and I'll admit that the hardest part of it was coming up with the title...who knew that titling a story was so difficult .

Reviews are welcome and I hope you stick around until Chapter 1 is up-

…sorry I still can't get over how hard it was to title this story…


	2. Chapter 2

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 1 **

[7th year of Hogwarts after the fall of Voldemort]

Months after Harry saved the world from Voldemort, it was now deemed truly safe for everyone to go back to their lives after rounding up the Death Eaters and putting them on trial to send them to Azkaban. Students returned to Hogwarts, people reopened shops, and everything returned back to the way it was except for subtle differences in the air and faces of everyone.

Although everyone seemed to burst at the seams from happiness that Voldemort was dead for eternity, and although happiness and freedom was thick in the air, no one could deny the existence of deep and bone aching sorrow that hid beneath the other two more apparent emotions. After all, so many had been hurt, so many had lost someone dear to them, so many had no one left.

A storm by the name of Voldemort had passed through their world, ripped everything up by the roots, demolished everything in sight and then disappeared leaving behind nothing and yet something at the same time. And now, it was up to the people to start rebuilding everything, and while their hearts were heavy from the loss and discouraged from the pain, there was also hope, like the sunlight poking in through the thick dark clouds to shine on the earth through the darkness after a terrible hurricane.

There was hope for a new world, hope for a new future, and hope for something better.

Everyone was starting with one step, whether it be opening a shop, building a house, or returning to school to finish education, as was the case for Harry, newly named 'Golden Savior', Hermione, and Ron who were both known as, 'Harry's sidekicks', much to the chagrin and irritation of Ron.

The trio had decided to return to Hogwarts to finish their last year of education just for the sake of old times. After what the three friends had gone through, they had suddenly desired normalcy in their lives, and what better object of 'normalcy' in their lives than school?

"Looks like they've already rebuilt everything." Hermione looked around the familiar castle with nostalgic, warm, brown eyes. Her face was tinged pink from the excitement rushing through her blood as all three of them walked into the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony to take place.

"I mean, they wouldn't just leave all the rubble lying around would they?" Harry tried to ignore the stares he received from every single person as they walked towards the Gryffindor table to take a seat.

Ron snorted," I don't know mate." He looked around himself as he plopped down beside Hermione, "I'm actually surprised that they didn't preserve it, like that one muggle museum I had to visit once. Here is the stone that Harry Potter touched," Ron's eyes twinkled with mischief," And here is the pebble that Voldemort chucked at Neville L-ow!" he turned to Hermione who had elbowed him sharply in the ribs,"What was that for Hermione?" he rubbed the sore spot with a hand.

Harry snorted with laughter as Hermione began to lecture Ron on how rude he was being and how he should learn more manners and that it would be impossible to erect a museum here in Harry's honor because it would disrupt the learning environment of the school.

"And besides Ronald," Hermione huffed," I doubt anyone would really want to remember all of the horrid events of Voldemort's crazy supposed reign of terror."

It seemed that no one had a problem saying Voldemort's name, now that the crazy wizard was dead, there was no fear of him.

Ron stiffened suddenly as if shocked by a bolt of electricity and then crumpled into a silent ball of grief beside Hermione. The Great Hall was being filled up with more and more people and it was getting harder to hear each other despite being in such close proximities within each other.

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances before Hermione looked back at the red headed Weasley with a look of regret and sorrow in her brown eyes, "Oh, Ron…I'm so sorry." She whispered and wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned her head gently against his shoulder." I honestly didn't mean to say that." Her voice was regretful and sad.

There was a moment of silence between the three friends before Ron pulled himself together and straightened up from his slump," It's alright Hermione." He gave a small half smile,"Fred would turn me into a bloody spider if he knew I was being a pansy about this." But even as he said this, his eyes turned bright with unshed tears at the thought of his older, deceased twin brother.

Hermione looked at the red head for a moment before leaning up to peck Ron on the cheek,"We're here for you if you need us." she whispered as Ron looked into her eyes and nodded softly, grateful, like every day of his life, that he had friends like Harry and Hermione.

Harry, who had been uncomfortable and sad about being reminded of Fred's death, had been letting his eyes wander around the noisy Great Hall for any familiar faces to distract his mind from the deceased twin when he suddenly spotted a familiar head of white,"Oi." He turned to face his two friends sitting in front of him but kept his eyes on the head of platinum blonde,"Look who's here." His voice was low and urgent.

Ron and Hermione followed Harry's gaze towards the Slytherin table and gaped at who they saw, the previous talk about Fred forgotten as they recognized the person that was sitting amidst all of the other Slytherins at the house table.

"What's Malfoy doing here?" all three of the friends managed to whisper in perfect unison as they stared in slight shock at seeing the solitary figure of the aristocratic blonde wizard here at Hogwarts once again.

And suddenly, thoughts of a peaceful year vanished like a wisp of smoke being blown away by a strong gust of wind as Harry stared at the back of Draco's head in dismay.


	3. Chapter 3

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 2**

As the trio continued to stare at Malfoy, they started when the pale Slytherin slowly turned around and met their eyes as if he had known that they were looking at him. His face was surprisingly expressionless, blank and void of the sneer or smirk that the three friends had expected to spread across the Malfoy's face.

Harry was the first one to blink as he and Malfoy shared eye contact from across the busy, loud and bright Great Hall of Hogwarts. As they both stared each other in the eyes from their great distance, something passed between them for a split second, and before either person could figure out what it was, McGonagall cleared her throat to capture the attention of the students.

Immediately, Draco and Harry looked away from each other as if their gazes burned painfully into their foreheads and shifted their attention to the front of the room where the new headmistress McGonagall was standing, a slightly sad and reminiscent smile on her aged and lined face. She could remember when she had been the one sitting at the table behind Albus as he gave the opening speech to the Hogwarts students.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were pricked with old forgotten grief. Dumbledore was gone. He had been gone for a while and the three friends had stupidly expected to see the great wizard and his twinkling blue eyes smiling down at them from the front of the Great Hall. Harry blinked quickly as his eyes filled with tears too quickly for his liking.

For the rest of headmistress McGonagall's welcoming speech, the three friends and a certain blonde Slytherin quietly sat through the rest of the evening as thoughts and memories of their previous headmaster unwillingly filled their heads with images of the person who was perhaps the greatest wizard in the history of wizards.

.-.

The next day was nothing special for all returning 7th years. Everyone knew what was expected of them and behaved accordingly in each class.

Well, most of them behaved.

No one was surprised to find two particular students in trouble once again.

"Mister Potter and Mister Malfoy!" the stern voice sharply rapped at their ears,"It has only been one day, ONE day so far since you two have been back and yet you two just have to jump at each other's throats the **moment** you see each other!" McGonagall looked at the two fuming boys sitting in front of her. Her lips were pressed into a thin line and her nostrils were flared and white indicating that she was beyond angry,"Really boys, as 7th year students I expected you to behave in a much more civil way towards each other while setting an example for the younger students."

Harry and Draco sat side by side silently and had the decency to look slightly ashamed of themselves after a quick glance at each other.

Neither of them dared to point out that it was the other person who had started for that was sure to earn them another lecture on how well behaved they were supposed to be, and that was something that they could do without.

As Headmistress McGonagall looked at them through her spectacles, she suddenly sighed out heavily, her strength seemed to leave her body right then making her seem frailer than before,"I just don't understand you two." she looked at Harry's face first, and then turned her gaze to Draco's delicate pale one.

Draco scowled at Harry and crossed his arms over his chest, it didn't matter how many times that bloody Potter had saved him when the dark lord had reigned. A Potter was a Potter; there was nothing else to it.

"Now then," the old severe looking headmistress straightened up,"We shall decide your punishment here and now." She looked thoughtful for a moment and Harry noticed some of the figures in the portraits strain their ears quietly.

Draco and Harry exchanged quick and hateful glances at each other before turning their attention to their new headmistress.

"Now then, I will give you two choices." She held up two fingers and put one down,"The first one is private detentions with me three times a week and privileges to visit Hogsmeade during the weekend suspended until the school term is over," the boys grimaced as they heard her list the first option,"Or the second one." The respectable witch put the second finger down and let her hand back onto the desk as she looked at the Gryffindor and Slytherin,"You will be spending one month together while promoting inter-house unity amongst your fellow housemates." She looked between the two now seething students seemingly unperturbed by their reactions.

"Professor McGonagall this is hardly a fair-"Draco opened his mouth to protest the injustice being done to him but he closed his mouth when the stern professor shot him a hard look.

"No, Mister Malfoy, this **is** fair. After almost 7 years of knowing each other, you boys can't even manage a polite and civil 'hello' without grabbing your wands and trying to battle each other to the death!" Professor McGonagall looked absolutely livid and was probably hell bent on making them stop fighting,"Your schedules will be arranged so that you will take the same classes in the same periods, a special dorm will be prepared for the both of you to room in and there will be a separate table for you boys to eat at in the Great Hall during mealtimes." She managed to calm herself down with a deep breath of air and looked between the two,"Your decisions?" she inquired.

Harry gritted his teeth in anger and forced himself not to open his mouth or move. This wasn't even a choice! Being confined to the castle with detention three days a week with McGonagall or spending a month with Malfoy while frolicking around promoting inter-house unity.

Silence descended in the room, filling every crevice and every nook and cranny. If they weren't in the room itself, then the three people would have believed it to be utterly void of noise and any living thing. The air was charged with anger and bitterness; the three people could practically taste it as they breathed it in.

"Your _decisions_?" McGonagall looked at them pressingly, her eyes narrowed and her mouth pressed so thinly together that it looked almost nonexistent.

"The first one." Harry said automatically causing Draco to almost fall out of his chair in shock.

"Potter!" he hissed and turned to the messy haired wizard when he recovered his balance,"Are you insane! I will not have you jeopardizing my weekends and weekdays!" his grey eyes flashed coldly as they met the green ones.

"Then what?" Harry practically yelled as they glared at each other heatedly,"Are you _seriously_ telling me that you want the second option?"

"Better that than being confined to this _place_."

Harry couldn't help it, he let out a disbelieving snort,"And you seriously think that either of us will be alive at the end of the month when we can't even stand to be in the same room for 2 minutes without pointing our wands at each other?" when there was no answer Harry turned to Professor McGonagall," I thought so." He would have smiled smugly if he weren't so angry,"I choose the fi-"

"Shut it Potter." Draco interrupted him with a scowl,"I choose the second one." He looked over at Professor McGonagall, his stormy grey eyes glinted.

"Malfoy!" Harry gritted his teeth in frustration,"Why can't you just-!"

"No, Potter why can't **you** just be obedient for once?" Draco snapped as they both turned to glare at each other.

"See, we're even fighting right now!" Harry cried out angrily, his grass green eyes were ablaze with annoyance.

Draco opened his mouth to reply when McGonagall cried out,"**Enough**!" her voice resounded loudly and thunderously in the office making both boys freeze at the sudden sound before turning to face the furious professor once more, their anger forgotten as they bowed their heads to the who was possibly the most scariest witch in the wizarding world,"Enough." She said once more but in a quieter voice,"Since it has come to this, I believe that I shall be forced to use both methods." She rebuffed their glowers with a look of her own,"Detention, suspension of Hogsmeade rights and you two now shall be rooming, eating and taking classes with each other until the school year is over."

Both boys' heads snapped up, Harry choked while Draco let out a squeak.

"I'm sorry boys, but I am tired of having all of the professors coming to me and complaining about the hazards of your fighting, I have even received a few letters from parents who were worried about their children being around you two!" she looked at them hoping to prove her point,"This has gone on long enough boys!"

"But…Professor!" Harry managed to cough out.

"I shall say this though." She held up a hand to stop Harry from talking,"If you boys are able to prove to be able to get along **genuinely**." She emphasized,"Then I shall withdraw the punishment."

There was silence as the Slytherin recovered from his shock and mulled it over slowly in his sharp mind while the Gryffindor was still trying to digest what had happened.

"Accepted." Draco said quietly.

Harry looked at the Malfoy in disbelief,"How can you do this?" he demanded to know.

"Think about it Potter." Draco ground out as he returned Harry's glare with a scowl of his own,"All we have to do is **get along**." He spat and leaned back in his chair.

"Impossible!" Harry's horror was evident on his face,"Even you know that!" there was no way that they could get along, in the best case scenario, one of them would be lying on the floor bleeding to death, and that was only the _best_. No one would be able to tell the worst case scenario.

"Just accept it Potter!" Draco hissed,"We have no other choice."

The brunette wizard looked between the furious and displeased Malfoy to the impatient looking professor all returning his gaze as they waited for him to make a decision.

Harry sighed suddenly feeling defeated,"Fine." He said sullenly.

McGonagall nodded once,"When the day is over, come back to my office and I shall take you two to your room."

Slytherin and Gryffindor nodded and stood up to leave the room at the apparent dismissal.

Sighing, the headmistress looked at the two boys practically stomp out of her office and rubbed her temples with her fingers to relieve herself of an oncoming headache as the door shut behind them,"Will they be ok?" she wondered quietly to herself and savored the peace and quiet that now filled the air.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Chapter 2 doneee

Reviews are greatly appreciated since I would like to know your opinions on the story so far.

Thank you-


	4. Chapter 4

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 3**

Their room turned out to be much better than the dorms that the two boys were familiar with, and Draco found that even he could not say one bad thing about the room Headmistress McGonagall had prepared for them. It was just a simple room with two beds pushed against opposite sides of the pure white walls. A door to the left indicated that the bathroom was built in, and there was a large window overlooking the view of the lake. The room itself was tastefully and yet simply done, the furniture made of dark wood and designed with black metal, and the floor was covered in thick rugs. Two separate desks had been provided for them, and despite the fact that the beds were pushed apart from each other, their desks had been pushed together.

Harry had to snort at that, it was so painfully obvious how much the professors wanted this to work.

It seemed that the left side of the room was meant for Draco, and the right side of the room was meant for Harry since they spotted their belongings neatly set up at the foot of their own beds.

The bathroom was on the opposite wall of where the entrance to the room was, and exactly in the middle. The door was carved out of dark wood, and the brass handle gleamed coldly in the dim light. It looked like the bathroom door of death to Harry.

"Now then, I wish you both goodnight and if there is **any** incident, I will not hesitate to send the both of you home." McGonagall glared down at the two very disgruntled looking boys through her thin spectacles perched lightly on the slight bump of her bony nose.

"Yes headmistress." They both grumbled realizing how completely serious McGonagall was, and neither of them wanted to go back home.

Draco, partly because he didn't really have a home anymore since the Ministry of Magic decided to monitor every single movement of the Malfoys , and Harry because, well, where else would he go?

With a silent swish of her robes, the old headmistress was out of the room in a second leaving Draco and Harry alone together. The silence rang in their ears as they stood around awkwardly unsure of what to do next.

"Right…well." Harry blinked and looked around the room as if it were some kind of new world. He walked over to his bed and began to sort through his stuff so that he could go to sleep.

Draco looked at Harry as if he were crazy,"Is that all you've got to say?" he asked in disbelief.

"Then what do I say?" Harry glared at him from where he was crouched in front of his trunk. He was currently sorting through his clothes at the moment trying to figure out where his pajamas were.

"How should I know that?" Draco snorted as he turned to his own trunk,"I don't think like **you**." He made it sound like it was an insult to have the great brains of a Gryffindor.

Harry gritted his teeth but decided not to reply and instead just returned to sorting through his trunk full of clothes and other miscellaneous items, such as his Marauders Map and a few Fainting Fancies leftover from his 6th year.

A slow hour passed by with the boys painstakingly sorting out their things, and when that was done, they were, under the circumstances, more than happy to finally crawl into their respective beds to sleep.

There was one problem though.

Harry rolled to his side.

Draco buried his head into his green pillow.

Harry dragged the blankets up to cover his head but had to stick his head out in the head because he couldn't breathe.

Draco turned to his other side.

Harry rolled onto his back and squeezed his eyes shut trying to sleep.

"For Merlin's sake Potter, all you have to do is wave your wand at the lantern and it'll go out!" Draco finally sat up in his bed and turned to glare at the Boy Who Lived who in turn scowled back.

"And why do I have to do it?" Harry asked defensively as he too sat up in his bed.

"Because you're right there!" Draco snapped in annoyance. His blond hair was slightly ruffled and his face was tinged pink from irritation.

"You have your wand underneath your pillow!" Harry pointed out as he squinted at the blurry form of Malfoy across the room from him. His hair was messier than ever.

Draco scowled and stuck his pale hand underneath the fluffy pillow and pulled out his black wand,"You do too!" he flicked his wand to move Harry's pillow to the side revealing the stick of wood lying there.

There was silence as the two boys scowled at each other, the air was charged with anger and annoyance as the boys willed themselves not to hex the other person.

Suddenly, they both sighed and Harry grabbed his wand,"Let's just forget this Malfoy." He muttered,"We're both tired."

"Hmph." Malfoy sniffed but didn't say anything as the two boys waved their wands at the offending lantern and doused the room in utter darkness.

There was a few moments of shuffling and rustles as the two boys got comfortable in their separate beds, before silence once again descended into the room.

"Why _do_ you have your wand underneath your pillow?" Harry suddenly asked out of genuine curiosity. He had seen Malfoy try to look discrete about hiding his wand and decided not to say anything about it as he stuck his own wand underneath his own pillow, just in case, he had thought.

Draco sighed out in exasperation,"Do you **want** to sleep or not Potter?" but he could tell that the bloody Gryffindor was just naively curious and for once, he didn't feel like being snappy or rude.

Harry was about to bite out a sharp retort when he heard Draco say something and shut his mouth immediately to hear the answer,"It's the same reason you do Potter." The Slytherin's voice was uncharacteristically soft and a little awkward at being civil to his long time enemy. He was simply not used to this.

Harry froze in surprise before relaxing. He had expected Malfoy to say something about hexing him while he was sleeping or some other answer, but this surprised him. The only reason why Harry still put his wand underneath his pillow before he slept was a remnant of his habit from when he had been hunting Horcruxes and traveling around with Ron and Hermione. Quick self-defense,"I guess old habits die hard." Harry whispered to the darkness unsure of whether Malfoy was still awake or not.

There was a soft chuckle,"You're telling me." Draco agreed softly as he closed his eyes to sleep. His voice was faint to Harry as the boys were on the opposite sides of the room, but the emotion in it didn't fail to reach him.

" 'Night Malfoy." Harry muttered as he closed his eyes to sleep. It seems that they were alike in some ways, and with that thought in mind, Harry fell into an easy sleep. Perhaps there was a way to transform their hate relationship into a friendship that should have been alive a long time ago.

.-.

The next morning, all traces of their extremely short civility towards each other was gone as if it hadn't happened at all.

"Malfoy, you've been in there for thirty-five bloody minutes already!" Harry pounded the bathroom door angrily,"I'm going to be late if you don't hurry up!" his voice was a growl and he cursed himself for waking up too late, but then again, who was he to know that this bloody Slytherin was such a feminine stickler for hygiene?

"Calm down Potter, I'm done." Draco unlocked the door and opened it, letting out a huge blast of steam scented with whatever the Malfoy used to wash. He was clothed in nothing less than a towel wrapped around his waist.

Harry didn't bother looking at the amused looking Malfoy and locked himself in the bathroom to take his morning shower. Tomorrow morning, he would wake up first.

.-.

Done- :]

Reviews are appreciated-

Thank you


	5. Chapter 5

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 4**

It turns out that McGonagall had done her best to arrange Harry's schedule so that he wouldn't be in any classes with Ron or Hermione, and apparently had to rearrange some other students just so that he and Draco would be together in all of their classes much to both boys' irritation.

Harry couldn't even sit or talk to his friends, and if he did, well, people could say that Headmistress McGonagall almost looked like the female version of Voldemort the first few times she caught him trying to sneak away from his table with Malfoy. And so with an extremely heavy heart, Harry gave up on his quest to spend some time with both of his friends and resigned himself to spending all of his time stuck with the sodding prat named Malfoy.

And so with a heavy heart he had to eat breakfast along with Draco at a special table that could only seat two people in between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables where a little space had been created for them ceremoniously by Headmistress McGonagall who had made the boys' predicaments into a speech before breakfast, which Harry had miraculously not been late for.

.-.

Weeks had passed by, and Harry had not seen neither hide nor hair of Hermione or Ron and he found that he felt an ache in his heart to see his friends. It was the familiar ache he got whenever he went to the Durselys for the summer when break was in session.

It seemed that McGonagall had known that if Harry was at least permitted to see either of them, he would most likely distance himself from Malfoy because he had friends, and well, the Malfoy was no longer the Slytherin Ice Prince.

The Malfoy was now just an ignored person. Neither hated upon, nor fawned over. It seemed that word of his last minute change of alliances in the recent war had spread like wildfire in a field of dry grass. He wasn't accepted by any of the wizards or witches who had been against Voldemort, but neither was he acknowledged by the former Death Eaters and the others who had secretly followed Voldemort.

Invisible.

That seemed to be the closest word for his current status.

Neither side wanted him, and for that, Harry felt a constant twinge of pity and sadness for the silver eyed pureblood.

However, despite that feeling, and despite the fact that the two boys had spent so much time together [even though most of it was spent snapping and arguing quietly with each other], they had not even bothered to get to know each other let alone even try talking to each other in a civil and polite manner. Some things, they had both decided, would never change, and that included their enemy status with each other.

Harry lounged around in his room bored and feeling a bit of self-pity for himself. Ever since the beginning of his punishment, he had found that the other Gryffindors were unwilling to go anywhere within a 5 mile radius near him, and that was all thanks to the bloody _Draco_ Malfoy. As a result of that, the green eyed wizard officially had no friends at the moment.

Draco entered the room silently just as Harry was starting to mutter about school professors and hell,"Is the Boy Who Lived so lonely that he's starting to talk to himself now?" the Slytherin sneered as the door shut behind him.

"Shut it Malfoy." Harry mumbled not bothering to look at the blond wizard walk to his bed.. He most certainly did not want the Malfoy to know how true those words were,"And where have you been?" he demanded to know suddenly. If it had been any other time, and if Harry had been in his right mind, he would definitely not have asked that question, however, he had to talk to _someone_, and that someone happened to be Malfoy. He sighed, the things that one will do when lonely…

Draco flung himself onto his bed and hid a wince as he landed on a particularly bad spot, and shifted his body into a more comfortable position,"I don't see why I have to answer to you." He replied mildly as he sighed out. It had been a long day so far and his last class would start in half an hour.

Harry frowned and turned his head to look over at the Slytherin. Both boys were lying in their own beds in the same positions. Draco was looking up at the ceiling absently while Harry was now studying his long time 'rival'. Smooth pale skin with a hint of a pink blush, small pink lips, a straight nose, silvery blonde hair and a nicely angled face. All of those features were nice, but it was his eyes that stood out from the rest. Depending on the lighting, Harry realized that they could change colors almost from a deep mercury, to a stormy silver grey, to a light grey sheen,"Never seen someone as good looking as me?" Draco's voice was slightly smug.

Harry blinked, startled for a second and found that he was looking into the pale grey eyes of Malfoy. It seemed that Harry had been too absorbed in studying Malfoy that he hadn't noticed the blond wizard turn his head to study him as well,"You wish." He muttered as he rolled over onto his side so that his back was facing Malfoy, he didn't have the strength nor the will to fight with Malfoy has they had in the past. As time went on, he found that the comments the Slytherin made were more of an annoyance rather than some biting remark.

Their fights had lost much of their usual vigor and hatred, now taking on an annoyed and mild taste of conversation; it seemed that the time they had spent together so far had been useful only in quelling the intensity of their arguments, which were now called, colorful conversations.

"I don't wish, I **know**." The Malfoy replied pompously, his tone was airy with a hint of amusement. It seemed rather unlikely, but it seemed that from the way they had been talking to each other, friendship was actually just beyond the horizon. Their hatred was slowly and painstakingly sluggishly morphing into something resembling a friendship.

Harry snorted as he quelled the urge to roll back over onto his other side to look at Malfoy once more. It was much easier to and satisfying to look at a person while carrying on a conversation,"Malfoys." He muttered under his breath in slight annoyance.

Malfoy scoffed,"You're lucky to be spending most of your time with one." His voice wavered almost inaudibly at the end. Was Potter really lucky? Malfoys were scorned now, they were ignored and hated. Draco sighed internally, well, even if that were the case, there was no bloody way he would admit it out loud in front of Potter.

Harry blinked and rolled over onto his side before he knew what he was doing and looked at Malfoy with keen green eyes, he had heard that little break in the Slytherin's voice.

Draco blinked and looked back at Harry,"What?" his eyes narrowed significantly at the Boy Who Lived.

"You know…I've been er..thinking." Harry's forehead creased in thought as he tried to pick out his words carefully,"You know…if you wanted to be…er friends." The words were clumsy and tumbled out of his mouth like blocks. Merlin's beard, why had he gone and said something like that?

There was a moment of profound and shocked silence as the Slytherin tried to digest the words that had spilled from Potter's mouth.

"You're a bloody fool." Draco managed to say before he fell into a laughing fit,"A bloody….st..stupid fool!" he laughed,"Did you hear anything that you've just spewed Potter?" he wiped away a few stray tears of laughter and turned looked at the reddening Gryffindor.

Harry didn't respond and hated himself vehemently for suddenly saying something like that so thoughtlessly…maybe he was going crazy without his friends.

"You can't be serious." Draco gaped at the Gryffindor,"I mean…after **six** bloody years of trying to kill each other, you want to be friends the next day?"

"Forget I said anything." Harry muttered and rolled onto his back to look at the ceiling instead of at Draco's disbelieving and amused face. It had been a stupid idea, their past animosity would just get in the way and they would end up fighting once more, it was an impossible idea, and past feelings did not die as easily as people thought.

Draco's eyes narrowed,"What are you playing at Potter?" he asked in a highly suspicious tone of voice,"You honestly can't believe that we'd be chums after our past." He waved a pale hand in the air as if to emphasize his point. And although he would never admit to it, he was getting tired of their constant bickering. He just wanted to peace and quiet at his last year at Hogwarts, however, the need and craving for defense and for security was a scary thing and it was those very desires that drove Draco to push everyone away and keep a distance from them as if they were enemy.

Harry sat up suddenly and looked at Malfoy, well, I started it, he thought to himself, might as well finish it, he reasoned as he shifted his body so that he was now facing the suspicious and apprehensive looking Slytherin.

The Malfoy studied Potter's face for any sort of telltale hint telling him that the Gryffindor was lying or playing some kind of bloody joke on him only to find none. Heaven knew how bad Gryffindors were at lying unless someone's life depended on it. However, there was still no reason for Potter to be acting so suspiciously now at this moment…maybe it really was the fact that he hadn't seen the bloody weasel and that Granger girl in a long while. He must be going crazy, Draco thought to himself as he and the Golden Savior of the Wizarding World kept looking at each other.

"I mean...might as well right?" Harry shrugged while struggling to keep his embarrassment at bay but failing miserably as his face now flushed a light shade of pink as he tried to endure the silence. During his lifetime, Harry had met a lot of crazy people including deranged werewolves, the walking dead, a crazy death eater by the name of Bellatrix Lestrange, and a dark wizard who had clearly been off his rocker before his demise.

And even after confronting all of those horrid and truly nightmare inspiring people, it was now that Harry realized that he would rather face another round of those people fresh from their graves than face Malfoy like he was right now.

By all accounts, this was by far the most embarrassing and frightening experience that Harry had had to undergo so far.

"Hmmm…" Draco carefully scrutinized the reddening Gryffindor. It was a tempting offer, he couldn't deny that, however there was still one thing that nagged at the depths of Draco's mind,"So now **you're** offering your friendship." He couldn't help but to bite out,"6 years **after** you **rejected **mine no less."

Harry winced at the biting remark, he had expected something of the sort,"Really Malfoy, don't tell me that you're _still_ hung up over that." He looked at the bitter Slytherin lying on the emerald green sheeted bed.

Draco frowned,"You don't seem to understand Potter." He said deliberately,"No one rejects a Malfoy." He sniffed pompously as if that reason alone was enough to justify six years of past rivalry and hatred.

"Spoiled." Harry murmured as a smile spread across his face,"You are hopelessly spoiled, Malfoy." He said a bit louder as he shifted positions on his bed and fingered the black sheets beneath him. The material was soft and comforting to the touch,"And a prat if I may add." His voice was uncharacteristically soft and thoughtful when talking about , and to the Malfoy.

"Do you want to be friends or not?" the retort came in a flash. Defensive, and accompanied with the trademark Malfoy voice along with a hint of anger.

Harry chuckled,"Of course I do, I've had my fill of fighting you." He lifted his gaze from the blanket beneath him to the very ruffled looking Slytherin who had rolled over onto his side to gaze at the Gryffindor. His head was propped up by a hand and his eyes were a curious shade of blue grey in the light.

"Then the first step is to **not** insult your friend." Draco sniffed. His hair was a mess but it still shined softly in the light and looked perfectly good on him. His nose unconsciously wrinkled as he said the word 'friend' as if it were some kind of noxious substance that was being forcefully poured into his mouth. He would have to get used to saying that word…

The Gryffindor rolled his eyes and then proceeded to lie back down on his bed while sighing contentedly. A slight smile played softly along the corners of his mouth urging him to just let his emotions out onto his face. He was happy. Happy that he would have one less enemy to worry about, happy that he would have one more friend to talk to since he couldn't talk to Ron or Hermione either way, and happy that everything was the way it was supposed to be right now.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" Draco caught the detached look of contentment on the bloody Potter's face. Why in Merlin's beard was **he** so happy?

When Harry didn't answer, Draco just rolled onto his back to look at the ceiling as he waited for his last class to come around,"Stupid Potter." He muttered darkly, but he could not deny the light feeling of being burden less spreading throughout his body warmly. A light smile tugged a corner of his pink mouth up in a faint smile.

Maybe…both boys thought in one way or another even if they had no way of knowing that they were thinking the same thing, maybe this would work?

.-.-.-.

Constructive criticism [reviews] are appreciated : )

Thank you for reading and thank you to all those who have left behind a comment for this story : ) I really appreciate it-

Thank you-


	6. Chapter 6

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 5**

The next morning as the two boys walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, Headmistress McGonagall eyed them suspiciously as they talked and laughed with each other just like any other pair of friends would be doing.

Three months had passed by to be exact, and the prim headmistress had noticed that the Gryffindor and Slytherin's relationship was getting much…friendlier nowadays. She could not deny that the first few weeks when their punishments had first started, Harry and Draco were moody, violent and foul to each other, and to all of the students around them who dared to ask them what had happened.

But now…The witch peered at the two boys suspiciously as they sat at their usual special table between the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, they were getting along…and they were getting along a bit too much…could it be real? McGonagall narrowed her eyes as she peered at them through her thin wired spectacles, her mouth pressing into a thin line as she tried to detect any hints of trickery and deceit in their acting as they reacted with each other.

Harry grinned brightly when Draco said something and then frizzled the Slytherin's perfect blond hair with a large hand.

Draco scowled at the Gryffindor and turned to the food in front of him preferring to eat rather than engage in the silly antics of a foolish Gryffindor.

Headmistress McGonagall returned to her breakfast, well, she would just give it more time, after all, that was the best way to tell.

But before the headmistress turned to talk to a certain professor seated to her right, she silently wondered how Ron and Hermione were going to react if Harry and Draco managed to befriend each other…

.-.-.-.

"You know Malfoy." Harry flopped onto his own bed as the Slytherin flopped onto his own in a graceful manner,"You're actually a decent friend." He grinned when a green pillow flew his way, completely missing his head and thumped into the wall before tumbling to the bed.

A lot of time had passed since that talk that night about being friends. It had turned out that forming a friendship hadn't been as hard as they had imagined it to be since the two people had more in common with each other than they had thought was possible and had gotten along quite nicely [aside from a few arguments of course].

"I'm rather sorry that it took you so long to notice." Malfoy muttered as he sat up just in time to catch the pillow aimed at his head. A grin marked his pale delicate face as he lie back down, this time with the reclaimed green pillow underneath his blond head.

Harry snorted but decided not to say anything, once the Slytherin got started on something, he had a horrible tendency to keep going on about it until he was all talked out.

A comfortable silence descended into the room as the two boys closed their eyes and rested for a moment, it was always nice to come back into the room and have a little bit of the peace and quiet that they couldn't get from sharing rooms with a few other students.

"Hey Malfoy?" Harry asked a little bit later, he lazily opened his eyes and peered up at the ceiling above him, his green eyes absently tracing the little cracks in the wall above him.

"It's Draco my dear." The Slytherin practically purred as he opened his silver eyes and turned his head to look over at the startled Gryffindor,"What?" he laughed at the expression on Harry's face,"You honestly can't expect to keep calling me Malfoy." He blinked lazily,"I'm getting rather tired of it, it sounds so uncivilized coming from someone who is supposed to be my 'friend.'"

Harry frowned up at the ceiling.

"So what was it that you wanted to say to me?" Draco grinned and rolled over onto his stomach, his robes twisted around his slim body but he paid no mind to it. Hearing what The Boy Who Lived had to say to him piqued his interest more than fixing his clothing.

"I was just wondering why I haven't seen Pansy around with you lately." Harry yawned loudly and turned his head to look over at the slightly surprised Slytherin.

Now it was Draco's turn to frown, after he had gotten over his initial shock, the expression was carved deeply into his face. Out of everything else, the bloody Gryffindor had to ask this particular question, the Slytherin sighed out quietly, leave it up to the Lion Hearts to be such fools, "I didn't know that my love life was of such interest to you." He replied coolly as he finally relaxed,"But before I answer that question, why don't you tell me where little Miss Weasel has been lately?" he raised an eyebrow in amusement when the Gryffindor abruptly turned his head to shoot a sharp look at him.

"Forget I said anything." Harry muttered after a momentary pause, and then rolled over onto his side so that his back was facing the smirking Slytherin. He was too tired to inform the Malfoy that he hadn't meant the question to sound that way, however, he couldn't deny the curiosity tingling inside of him. Oh yes, the savior of the Wizarding world was actually dying to know the details of the Slytherin's love life. They had, after all, talked about almost everything else there was to talk about, keyword: almost. The one topic that both boys had refused to touch upon was the subject of past…_loves_ one could say.

And who could blame them? It was a sore and slightly out of bounds subject for both boys.

Draco just sniffed,"Well, if you must know, I just told her that I could only ever see her as a younger sister and nothing more, and that if she continued to chase after me, I would tell everyone that the reason why her chest area is so busty is because she magically augments them periodically."

There was a stunned silence as Harry unwillingly heard what Malfoy had threatened Pansy with,"Weren't you interested in her at all?" he grudgingly turned over onto his other side to face the slightly triumphant looking Slytherin.

"Now hold on to your little diaper because this might surprise you." Draco grinned,"No." he replied, his cool silver eyes bore into Harry's green ones.

"Then why-?" Harry opened his mouth when Draco shot him a look.

"I play alot." The Slytherin shrugged,"As much as it may surprise you. But lately, I've been too busy to play around as much as I used to, and you should know that better than everyone else since you are my witness to that." He said referring to the fact that he and Harry had been basically stuck with each other as he observed the dumbfounded expression on the other boy's face with a look of satisfaction,"Now then, care to tell me why Miss Weasel isn't around anymore?" he raised an elegant eyebrow and waited patiently for Harry's answer.

Harry frowned,"The feeling just died." He said as he thought back over the reasons for the breakup. Of course, Ron had been slightly upset about it and hadn't talked to Harry for a week before he had decided that it wasn't entirely Harry's fault. Feelings, after all, had a mind of their own.

"But of course." Draco smirked at the green eyed wizard,"The great Potter wouldn't hurt someone on purpose and for no reason at all." His stormy grey eyes glinted in the light.

"At least you get it." Harry muttered,"And besides, we're not all like you." He lifted his eyes defiantly to match the Slytherin's own look.

Draco just laughed and waved a hand as if to brush the comment away from him but didn't say anything in response to Harry's mild comment. He was too busy thinking about something, a possible solution to a 17 year old battle that had been waging inside of him up until this point. He had always wondered.

"Have you ever thought that you walked on the other side of the street?" Harry suddenly asked, his voice broke the tender silence that had settled itself into the room.

"Have you just read my mind Potter?" Draco let his eyes settle themselves onto the Gryffindor's unsettled face.

"No…." Harry raised an eyebrow at the disturbed looking Slytherin.

"Don't tell me…" both boys sat up onto their respective beds and stared at each other. Wide green eyes looked into huge silver ones.

Draco narrowed his eyes at Harry, who in turn scrutinized the Slytherin with a look of his own creation. A mix of suspicion, surprise, and something else.

"Interesting." Draco looked thoughtful. His blond hair looked smooth and lustrous in the light. His pale skin had a slight blush of excitement dusted across his delicate cheekbones.

"Well…we're not sure are we?" Harry didn't like the beginnings of the trademark Slytherin plotting face emerging onto Draco's face. That sly and conniving look…

"Exactly, we're not sure." Draco looked at Harry as if that was the answer to their very question,"And we can't be sure until we try it out."

There was silence as Harry realized the weight of what Draco had just said, and slowly, his mind went blank and he couldn't do anything but stare at the grinning Slytherin who apparently thought that it was one of the best ideas that he'd ever come up with in a lifetime.

.-.-.

Doneee :)

Sry it took so long- I had to figure out a few issues-

Leave behind some reviews :)


	7. Chapter 7

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 6**

"Try it out?" Harry sputtered, his green eyes went feverish, and his face turned immensely red,"What do you mean try it out?" of course he knew what Draco had said…he just wanted to make sure he hadn't heard wrong…you know…just in case, and there was always such a thing as 'misunderstanding's.

Draco rolled his silver eyes at the shocked Gryffindor,"Did I say **anything** else?" the Slytherin huffed impatiently,"Honestly Potter, I sometimes wonder how you've even managed to stay in Hogwarts for as long as you have."

Harry frowned at the comment but decided not to say anything else in reply, what he wanted to know, was what this conniving little Slytherin had in mind.

When Harry didn't say anything, Draco grinned, a light gleamed in his eyes that made the messy haired brunette shudder in dread,"See, in your muggle world, there are those muggles who call themselves 'scientists' no?" the icy blonde haired Slytherin raised an elegant eyebrow at Harry who dumbly nodded wondering where this was going to lead up to,"And they do experiments to test out a hypothesis correct?"

The Gryffindor just nodded once again.

"And if the results don't come out the way-"Draco opened his mouth to continue when Harry burst in.

"I **know** what you mean by 'trying it out'." Harry cut in heatedly,"I meant, **are you insane**?" his green eyes were glassy, up until now he had never given his…orientation much thought, and now unhealthy curiosity was starting to stir up a storm in his stomach.

Draco glared at Harry for cutting him off,"I'm not insane Potter." He scoffed in a lofty tone of voice,"It was just a suggestion." his face grew smug as he studied Harry's flustered face,"And besides, I can tell you're dying to figure it all out too." He smirked when Harry's face grew red.

I swear he can read my mind, Harry thought to himself darkly as he looked at the pale Slytherin lounging on his dark green covered bed.

"And no, I can't read minds Potter." Draco called as he let his eyes wander over the walls of their room,"It just doesn't take much to figure out what you're thinking." His voice was cool.

Harry grumbled under his breath but didn't move, he was really wondering about what Draco had said a few moments ago.

"Got your attention Potter?" Draco was looking incredibly smug and uppity about himself at the moment. So far he had managed to dominate the conversation towards his way and he was surprised to see how easily manipulated the Gryffindor could be despite being hardheaded and stubborn,"What do you say?" the Slytherin looked at the contemplating Gryffindor with an emotionless face.

Harry looked at Draco, his emerald green eyes deep and his face pale,"Er…one question…exactly **how** are we going to make this work if we do happen to proceed on with…this…this thing of ours." He waved a hand in the air as if to push the notion away.

There was silence as Draco thought about it,"Good question." He replied bluntly as he continued to think about it…,"I suppose…we get into it like how a boy and girl would?"

Of course they both knew how it would work…the question was would it work. The fact that both of them were each other's first so called 'boyfriend' after dating solely girls was awkward enough as it was to the two people who had just become friends. Now they had to become something more than people who just laughed and joked with each other.

"And I can see that you've put a lot of thought into it." Harry retorted at the Slytherin's reply. His messy black hair seemed to stick out more than usual as if in response to the growing emotions stirring inside of him.

"Oh shut it Potter, it's not like you can do much better." Draco sniped back, his delicate white nose was beginning to scrunch up in disgust as he turned his pale white face to scowl at the lightly tanned Gryffindor.

Harry just laughed but didn't say anything else afterwards. It was best to leave the Slytherin to his own devices until everything was figured out and well thought of or Merlin knows it would drive the blonde haired boy insane because of disorganization.

"I have a better idea." Draco suddenly said as he snapped out of his thoughts and got off of his bed to make his way towards Harry's bed.

Harry froze instinctively and squinted at Draco coming closer and closer to him,"What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously as Draco settled onto his bed next to him. The weight of his body made the bed creak and dip a little bit as he moved around for a bit. Harry could barely smell the scent of Draco wafting around in the air around him and he could feel his body heat emanating from him in a constant wave.

"Isn't it obvious Potter?" Draco rolled his grey eyes and pulled the blanket up to his chest and yawned loudly. Harry's bed was just as comfortable as his bed was, no, maybe even more comfortable than his own bed,"I'll be sleeping here from now on." And with that said, he closed his eyes and began to breath evenly and deeply to get to sleep.

There was a stunned silence for a few moments as Harry looked down at the Slytherin trying to sleep as if he didn't know what to do with the person.

"Oh for merlin's sake Potter!" Draco opened his grey eyes and looked up into Harry's green ones in irritation,"If we're going to make this work, this first step is necessary. I'm going to be sleeping in your bed from now on."

"Um Draco…I don't think relationships work this way…" Harry's voice came out a little bit choked as he tried to calm himself down. Was Draco out of his mind? Yes…clearly he was, there was no other explanation for this behavior.

"You wouldn't sleep in the same bed as your significant other?" Draco raised an elegant eyebrow,"What kind of relationships have _you _been in?" he put a hand to his chest,"I'm rather offended now Harry." He put a look of mock hurt on his face,"You don't want to sleep next to your boyfriend?" his mouth tasted the word cautiously as he said it. It was a new word, a foreign word, a taboo word. But it was a delicious word nonetheless. It tasted of perfection and freedom for Draco.

Harry just stared at Draco with a dumbfounded expression on his face for a few minutes and then finally with a resigned huff he took off his glasses, waved his wand to turn the lights off and settled into his own bed for the night.

Silence descended into the now dark room and the only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of the two boys quiet even breathing as they lay there side by side as far away from each other as possible with falling off the bed itself.

Harry closed his eyes and tried to will himself to fall asleep, but for some reason he was wide awake, alert even and adrenaline rushed through his body like a giant hot wave. The presence of the Slytherin beside him made Harry so aware and sensitive, all of his senses were acute and heightened as if he were about to go into battle. The silence was so stifling and the space between the two people felt so empty. Harry would never understand why he did what he did next, the only thing he would be able to reason with himself later on was that…well…he just did it. Slowly, ever so slowly, Harry began to move his hand up from his side and slid it in the direction of the Slytherin next to him searching for something.

Draco almost jumped when he felt something warm and slightly rough brush against his hand and then abruptly pull away from him as if it had been shocked. Confused and with heart beating fast with some sort of heated excitement, Draco waited for the contact to happen again.

Heart beating fast and blood pumping in his ears, Harry slowly, once again, ever so slowly began to reach out for Draco's hand when the Slytherin hadn't done or said anything the first time around. His chest felt tingly and light while his breathing pace quickened as if he had run a marathon.

The room was silent and slightly cold, but despite the emptiness of the room, the air was charged with a sort of electricity that only the two people could feel at the moment between each other.

Tentatively a warm rough hand once again came into contact with a slim cold one and before the Gryffindor could chicken out and pull away from the physical contact, the cold Slytherin latched onto Harry's wrist before he could pull away. A silent but short struggle ensued with the panicking Gryffindor trying to pull away and the amused Slytherin holding on, but as Draco began to soothingly rub his thumb around in circles on Harry's wrist, the hot headed Gryffindor calmed down and let the Slytherin stroke his skin softly.

"It's not so bad now is it Potter." Draco whispered as both boys unconsciously sighed out in content.

It was a strange feeling. The feeling of utter and absolute peace, neither of them wanted nothing more than to just lay there soaking in each other's presence and company. They felt completed and whole lying there together in silence, their hearts beating in unison while their breathing complimented each other in the darkness.

"I suppose not." Harry replied softly feeling a bit drowsy all of the sudden.

But who knew how they would handle it tomorrow?

-.-.-.-.

Okkk sooo very very sorry for the amazingly late update…life has been busy because of college apps and all that stuff but I have it all taken care of : ]

I am happy to announce that I am officially back haha.


	8. Chapter 8

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 7**

Morning crept on both people quietly and mischievously, the young morning sun slowly rising up in the air as it pushed night and dawn away. The light yellow rays of the sun poking in through the large window that revealed the lake covered in wasps of thin mist snaking around above the waters and through the Forbidden Forest. The sky was clear and light blue signifying that a new day had come and that it was time for people start anew.

Silence dominated the large grand castle of Hogwarts as most of the students were still in bed sleeping and dreaming away.

Some people would say that it was a coincidence, others might say that it was just chance, still others might say that it was because of a special connection between the two people. Who knew, but it just so happened that both boys managed to wake up at the same time as the other person.

Draco was snuggled deeply into Harry's arms, his pale head resting on the surprising broadness of the Gryffindor's chest, one leg wrapped around Harry's leg as if he was a vine. Harry's arms were wrapped tightly around Draco's waist and laced around his back pulling him close. Their bodies seemed to melt into each other and through the thin material of their pajamas, both persons could feel the other's body heat and heartbeat. Harry breathed in deeply still with his eyes closed and pulled the warm body that he was holding even closer to him as if he couldn't get enough of the other person. The scent that wrapped around the two people was pleasant and smelled slightly musky. As if in response, Draco snuggled in deeper, his face buried into Harry's chest.

There was a moment of complete contentment as both boys slowly began to wake up from what seemed like the best sleep of their short lives.

Suddenly, Harry froze as he opened his eyes to blond hair tickling his nose slightly. Draco didn't move an inch as he realized who it was that he was wrapped all over.

Neither of them said a single word as they both tried to grasp their bearings. The silence rang in their ears as they dared not move or say anything. One wrong move and everything could go wrong…or even worse…everything could get awkward. And people know that when it comes to awkwardness, boys are the worst at handling it...especially when it came to a Gryffindor and Slytherin who had just become friends and then boyfriends as part of an experiment designed by the ever so brilliant Draco Malfoy who managed to drag the poor Golden Savior into it as well.

The silence was overwhelming.

Harry refused to move or open his mouth. Why were his arms wrapped around Draco? Why was he _still_ hugging the Slytherin close to him?

Draco refused to unwrap himself from the Gryffindor, he was too embarrassed to even move a pinky. How in Merlin's beard had he managed to entangle himself into the Golden Savior's arms and legs?

What in Dumbledore's name were they supposed to do!

The silence in the room was stifling and both people were too scared to move an inch from each other.

"Draco." Harry hissed quietly not daring to move a single muscle. He couldn't see anything for the life of him since his glasses were on the stand beside him.

"You were awake?" came the skeptical reply but no movement. The Slytherin's voice was surprisingly fresh and smooth despite just waking up a few moments ago.

"Yes." Harry rolled his eyes, " You could have told me that you were awake…" his voice was slightly husky and sleep ridden but his embarrassment was apparent in his tone of voice as he spoke.

"Oh yes, of course." Draco replied airily, "Silly me." His voice was slightly muffled as he spoke into Harry's chest,"Because I know exactly when you wake up and because it was my job to awaken you from your beauty sleep."

Harry decided that no matter what a person did to Draco's voice, no one could ever disguise or lessen his sarcasm in the slightest bit, "Ok well…if you're awake, can you move please?"

Both of them were becoming stiff from tensing as if someone had cast a _Petrifucus Totalus_ on them.

Draco just snorted, the slight vibration tickling Harry enough to twitch but not enough for him to move away, "Right, well why don't** you** move Potter?" he would never admit that part of the reason why he didn't move is because he enjoyed being in close proximity to Harry. The contact felt nice and warm to him, he felt safe and for some reason he felt that the emptiness inside of him had been filled. And truthfully speaking, the other part of the reason why he didn't move was because it would just be so awkward afterwards…

"Right…er…" Harry struggled with himself for a few moments. The awkwardness was killing him inside and even though having the Slytherin in his arms and up against his body made him feel content and alive like never before, he could not deny the stony awkwardness between them.

They were a tangle of deep silky warm maroon and cold light smooth silver. Warm and cold. Both persons were so different but in a way they were so similar.

"Well?" Draco demanded, if he wanted to get to breakfast in time he would have to cut his normally hour long shower into a bloody thirty minute one and he hated to be rushed, especially if it was to be clean. He didn't mind staying in Harry's arms mind you, but personal hygiene was a must for the pure bred Slytherin heir.

Harry sighed, he just couldn't move, it was just so…strange for him. If he stayed like this he could almost forget that the person he was holding was Draco Malfoy.

Draco sighed loudly and pushed himself away from Harry, "Didn't want to let go of me that much Potter?" he smirked as they both found each other's eyes. Draco flipped Harry onto his back and pinned his arms above him on the bed while maneuvering himself so that he was now straddling the surprised Gryffindor.

"Draco wh-?" Harry opened his mouth when the Slytherin gently and softly placed his pale pink mouth on the warm reddish ones of the person trapped below him.

"Good morning." Draco whispered as he pulled away a little from the startled green eyed wizard,"And you talk to too much." he grinned wolfishly as he began to nuzzle into Harry's neck.

The Gryffindor shuddered as Draco gently bit and nibbled at his neck. He was at a complete loss as to what he should be feeling at this point. Everything just happened so fast that it didn't give him time to think about anything but to just go along with it.

"Wait, we're going to be late!" Harry struggled in Draco's and tried to get up so that he could get ready for breakfast and morning classes. But surprisingly the blond was stronger than he looked and Harry found that he couldn't shake him off.

Draco looked up from Harry's neck and into his eyes sighing, "What a way to ruin the mood." He grumbled as he surveyed Harry's reddened face,"Gryffindors." He mumbled and shook his head as he got off of Harry and made his way to the bathroom shutting the door with a sharp _click_ as he walked inside.

Harry lay there frozen stiff trying to calm himself down and to try to understand what had just happened to him, it was just all so strange. His ears were ringing and his fingers were tingly as he stared at the door that Draco had disappeared behind.

Behind the door, Draco smiled to himself as he turned the water on for his shortened bath. This morning was starting off splendidly and he never could have imagined that he would be able to feel what he was feeling right now. As if the whole world was right, as if everything was perfect.

-.-.-.

"Draco, do you mind handing me that quill over there beside you?" Harry asked absently as he unrolled his sheet of parchment to start the last essay of his school career.

Months had passed by and in the time that had flew by, it was now widely presumed and known that the former death eater and the savior of the Wizarding world were going steady as it were. Many of the girls were heartbroken and there was even a designated day of mourning/wailing on behalf of the crushed dreams of the young ladies of Hogwarts. The experiment had been forgotten a long time ago and both boys decided that maybe the experiment was sort of a way for both of them to ease into dating without all of that other awkwardness. And of course Hermione was much more enthusiastic of the idea of the two boys dating than was comfortable and Ron…was well, he was Ron. It would take some time for him to be comfortable with that idea, but for now there was a mutual ground of trust between him and the couple. They had found out quite accidently when they had managed to finally find the time to be able to visit their famous friend only to be intruding on the two people caught up in a moment of passion. It had taken weeks to get Ron to stop gagging and ranting on about how they should practice abstinence.

It still blew Harry and Draco's mind that they were dating each other. The reality seemed so much like some kind of illusion that sometimes both people had to reassure one another that it was real. This was the best thing that had ever happened to them and some of their memories were priceless. They would never be able to forget each other.

"What do I get if I do?" Draco dangled the long feather slowly in front of Harry's brilliant green eyes, a little smirk tugged up the corners of his mouth as he caught the look of irritation flash across the Gryffindor's face.

"Draco." Harry complained as he looked up from his unrolled sheet of parchment that lay bare before him. He swiped at the sharpened quill that was rolling slowly between Draco's two fingers in an attempt to retrieve it but found that he only grasped at thin air.

The Slytherin smirked but nevertheless consented to hand the flustered Gryffindor his quill, merlin's beard he was such a bloody good boyfriend. And after giving Harry a soft kiss on the lips he turned around and headed towards the bathroom for his nightly bath.

"By the way Draco what are you planning to do after school?" Harry's voice could be heard over the rushing of the water filling the large tub. Draco never bothered to close the door anymore, what was the use of that door to a couple who had already seen everything anyways?

Draco's eyebrows rose up as he stripped off his clothes and set them in a neat pile beside the tub,"Why are you asking me that all of the sudden?" he asked as he tapped the facet with his wand to stop the flow of water. In all the time that they've been together this was one of the topics that had managed to stay forgotten until the crucial moment of decision.

"Just wondering." Harry shrugged as he began to scribble down his essay with slow and steady fingers,"I know that you have to take over your father's affairs and such since you're the only Malfoy heir."

Draco paused for a moment before he carefully slid into the tub sighing softly as he felt the warm water envelop his body and start to relax his muscles,"I guess I will have to do that." He mused to himself as he leaned back in the tub and looked up at the stone ceiling above him with absent grey eyes,"My father will be teaching me the rest of what I have yet to learn and merlin knows that it would take at least a year for me to learn everything even with my super genius abilities."

Harry rolled his green eyes but continued writing as he listened to the blond speculate about his future.

"And when everything is under control and my father is satisfied with how I handle things, I will be working at the ministry just like he does." Draco finished off slowly and then blinked as he seemed to snap out of his thoughts,"What about you?" he demanded to know as he let the warmth seep into his delicate bones.

"Auror. " Harry replied without a moment of hesitation as he dipped his quill into the bottle of black ink and began to scribble out another sentence of his essay.

Draco snorted,"How very like you." he began to pour scented oils into the water one after another and they smelled heavenly,"You and your hero complex." He screwed the last bottle closed and began to breathe in deeply as the scents began to mix together and rise up with the sheen of white vapor coming up off the surface of the water,"I never understood that." He sighed.

There was silence as Harry resisted an urge to roll his eyes at the last remark and Draco to chuck his wand at the unmoving messy haired Gryffindor sitting at his desk.

"Have you ever thought about what would happen to us when we have to go our own ways?" Harry suddenly asked, the thought hitting him like that one time when Draco had accidently thrown a brick at him that was aimed for someone else.

Draco stopped moving as the question sunk into him like the warmth of the bath,"Have you ever thought of it?" his voice was uncharacteristically soft and serious, not at all haughty.

Harry slowly set his quill down onto the desk and turned in his seat so that he was now facing Draco who was equally turning in the tub to return his stare,"No." he replied quietly as they locked eyes,"…I thought…I never knew…It…I…" Harry closed his mouth frustrated at his inability to say what he wanted to say.

"You never thought that it would come to this." Draco said calmly, his silver eyes were searching for something in Harry's face,"You thought that maybe it wouldn't be a problem. You thought that it would stay this way forever." His voice was even and maybe even a little bit gentle.

Neither boy said anything after Draco's last sentence. The air was charged with emotion as both people continued to stare at each other trying to grasp the solution of this, to try and grasp their footing on this, to try and figure out everything for each other and themselves.

"I thought it would stay this way forever." Harry repeated in a whisper, his brilliant green eyes were pained as he gazed into the silver eyes of the blond. He should have thought of it, he shouldn't have lost himself in what they had this last year of their school life.

"Do you regret it?" Draco asked softly even though he already knew the answer to the question. He could see how much it was killing Harry, and it killed him too, that things would get so much harder for them and it would only continue to get harder as they left school and entered their professional lives as the wizards that they had been working to be.

"No." Harry's voice was fierce and stubborn,"Never." He stared meaningfully into Draco's eyes despite the distance between them. And he didn't, he couldn't regret all the times that they had spent together, the good and the bad.

"Then what's the problem?" Draco smirked at his Gryffindor,"As long as you don't regret anything and as long as you're willing to stay with me, not that you have a choice in that by the way, then I don't see why you have to act like such a ninny about the whole future thing." He waved a hand in the air causing a little splash of water.

Harry blinked.

Draco rolled his eyes and went back to relaxing in his bath,"Honestly," he muttered,"Gryffindors are too emotional about everything."

The said Gryffindor just stared at Draco and then just stared at him some more before finally a little smile graced his face that had been so serious only moments before, he chuckled and turned around to resume working on his essay once more,"Slytherins." He shook his head and smiling a little bit fondly at his silver haired boyfriend he dipped his quill into the bottle of black ink and dotted the end of his sentence with a perfectly circular period,"They just have to make life harder for everyone."

"I heard that." Draco called out to Harry with his eyes closed.

Harry just laughed but didn't say or do anything other than write his essay. He wanted to finish it off so that the last week of school would be his to claim and to do as he pleased.

-.-.

Sorry for the late updates people . I was having a bit of trouble getting back into the flow of writing haha so the chapter might be a bit choppy and weird..and I so do apologize for it all. I hope you understand.

Reviews are greatly appreciated [constructive criticism and whatever and whatnot].

Thanks everyone :] also feel free to drop any requests.


	9. Chapter 9

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 8**

"We'll write, we'll fire call, we'll even visit each other." Draco reassured Harry as they lie there together in the darkness of the room on their bed. It was the last night of school for them before they returned to their respective places in society and while every other person in the school was celebrating and smuggling in fire whiskey from Hogsmeade so that they could get plain drunk off the liquor, the two people preferred to stay away from the festivities and just spend time with each other, the time would never be there in the future.

Harry lay with Draco in his arms but he didn't say anything, instead he only pulled the blond closer to his chest. He wouldn't be able to do this for a long time while Draco was taking care of family business. Strangely enough, it seemed that sometimes what happened at Hogwarts just stayed at Hogwarts, especially when it came to things that dealt with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy so conveniently enough, no one in the outside world had a single clue as to what was going on with their savior and former death eater. If anything at all, they probably still thought that they were at each other's throats with wands in hand.

"You know that you won't be able to get away from your dad." Harry whispered as he closed his eyes and tried to soak in the feeling of having Draco in his arms for the longest time. They would be so close to each other and yet they would be so far. There was nothing more frustrating than that to both people.

Draco just buried his face into Harry's chest and breathed in,"It'll just be a year Harry." But he sounded like he was trying to reassure and tell himself that fact instead of Harry.

It was painful. Too painful that this would be the last night that they would spend with each other, and yet, they had decided to stay together because even though it hurt a lot to do this, it would hurt more to live with the fact that they let this situation break them apart.

Harry squeezed his eyes shut and let out a slow and soft sigh,"It'll be ok." he opened his eyes and looked down at Draco who had been looking up at him,"It'll be ok." He smiled a little at the pale boy in his arms in what he hoped seemed like a very reassuring smile.

The fear in Draco's silver eyes slowly softened into a gentle grey of hope as his eyes shone in the moonlight coming in through the window from the outside. He had never looked more beautiful than he did now with his alabaster skin glowing softly in the white moonlight, his pale blond hair shining like a halo of light, and his grey eyes glimmering like a sea of soft silver.

The Gryffindor reached up with an arm and softly traced Draco's pink lips with a gentle thumb before leaning in and placing a sweet kiss on his lips. Silence rang peacefully and blissfully in their ears as they began to create another memory of just the two of them in each other's arms, and better yet, their world.

-.-.-.

Morning came slowly but surely, the bright sun creeping slowly over the horizon. Unwanted but still there. The castle was quiet, last night's festivities had ended late last night and everyone would have a hard time getting up early to catch the train back to King's Cross Station.

"It was too short." Draco muttered snobbishly referring to the night that he and Harry had spent together. His voice was still rough from sleep and his eyes were barely open, but never the less, the tone of his voice hadn't diminished in the slightest.

Harry just groaned and buried his head into the crook of Draco's pale smooth neck wishing desperately for the morning to revert back to last night. Neither of the boys had been able to sleep and had stayed up all night talking to each other and just soaking in the feeling of being in each other's presence.

"Well…it's not as if we aren't going to see each other." Draco muttered to himself as he reached up and buried his fingers into the tangled mess that was Harry's hair. Despite the appearance of an unmanageable rats nest, the Gryffindor's hair was surprisingly soft and silky to the touch and Draco enjoyed the feeling of the smooth strands of hair slipping through his fingers immensely,"There is such thing as fire calling, owling, and apparating…" the Slytherin's voice trailed off as he became lost in thought.

"Things will work out." Harry mumbled, his voice was muffled and rough. Draco was unbearably warm to him this morning and it was a pleasant change from the usual cold person,"What could go wrong anyways."

Draco rolled his eyes,"Harry have I ever told you that you are a dimwit?" he retorted but didn't look at the green eyed wizard who blinked up at him in confusion, squinting in that adorable way when he didn't have his glasses on.

Harry just snorted,"I've heard it enough times to last me a good while."

"Let's just hope that nothing does go wrong." Draco murmered, the sarcasm and the harsh cold tone of his voice softening almost immediately.

"Nothing ever goes as planned does it." Harry sighed out softly as he shut his eyes in hopes of maybe being able to shut out the reality of their situation at the moment. It was as if they were going to be ripped apart from each other. And even though they both said that they would only have to wait a year, they knew that it would most likely take more time than that for both of them to finish all of their businesses.

"Don't you regret fighting with me these past years at Hogwarts Harry?" Draco grinned condescendingly at Harry who was lying in his arms,"Because instead of fighting each other, you could have spent the years in complete bliss knowing that you're with me."

Harry snorted loudly,"It's always on me isn't it." He muttered darkly but couldn't help but to smile a little bit knowing that Draco felt the same way as he did about the past years that had gone by at Hogwarts.

"Of course." Draco replied airily,"A Malfoy never does anything wrong nor does a Malfoy have any faults." His tone was pompous and lofty,"And besides." He sniffed,"_Someone_ has to be the perfect one in the relationship."

They both started to laugh at that. The tones of their voices mingling and intertwining with each other as the sound spread throughout the room they shared. It was such a perfect moment. No cares or worries for the world, nothing to drag them down to despair for the moment. It was so perfect.

But as suddenly as the laughter had started, the laughter stopped as if it had been cut off by a sharp knife. They would be apart.

Harry breathed out quietly and deeply while he tightened his arms around Draco's slim pale shut his eyes tightly trying to remember the feeling of the solid being in his arms, to feel the warmth, to breathe in the scent, to hold someone….

"You are the biggest ninny I have ever seen." Draco said softly as he caught Harry angrily swiping away the tears that had managed to leak out from underneath his tightly shut eyes,"Harry stop being such an emotional little girl."

There was silence as Draco wrapped his own arms around Harry's warm body.

And they just lie there in the absence of noise trying to console and comfort each other with the remaining time that they had with each other.

-.-.

Endddddd for now :]


	10. Chapter 10

[If you love someone, let them go. If they return they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.]

.-.

(You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.)

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Chapter 9**

The first few weeks were as promised. Firecalls every night, owls every day, and visits to each other any chance they got whether it be by Floo powder or by Apparation. It was easy, but then again, the beginning was always the easiest to hang on to.

However, as weeks turned into months and months finally into a year which then turned into two years, the firecalls switched from every night to every now and then, the owls from everyday to once a few weeks and the scarce visits to each other stopped completely.

Then on the third year, correspondence stopped completely.

It had died.

The connection bonding the two people, the effort that they wished that they could put in, and the feelings of determination that had fueled them to do what they did.

Distance cut them apart. It had slowly sawed away at their feelings, their motivation, their endurance.

Draco was too busy managing his family affairs along with his father's near imprisonment in Azkaban once again while Harry had joined the Ministry of Magic as an accomplished and elite Auror. Business, life, distance, all of it had just thrust themselves onto the two people who had a duty and obligation to fulfill their responsibilities.

"Harry you have another assignment." A brunette set a stack of papers down onto the already overflowing desk while passing by," It's a group of former Death Eaters that managed to escape causing trouble again." She said as she disappeared out of sight.

The green eyed wizard sighed heavily barely glancing at the new stack of papers as he tried to organize the chaos on his desk. Being an elite Auror was good, but who knew that it was so much paperwork?

Weeks after week, Harry labored over writing satisfactory reports, reading assignment details, organizing his desk or at least trying to, doing active duty, and thinking about Draco.

It wasn't that he was trying to or voluntarily thinking about him, it was just that thoughts of him always remained somewhere in the back of his head no matter what he was doing. He didn't know how they had stopped communicating, he didn't know why he was still hanging onto a little thread of hope after 4 years had passed, and he didn't know if Draco still held onto the same feelings for him.

The monotonous cycle that he went through everyday numbed his brain, nothing was new, and he felt like he was always in some kind of auto mode where he just did things reflexively.

The former Gryffindor sighed as he stood up stowing his wand away in his pocket and grabbed the papers he had received just a moment ago so that he could read the details on his way to subdue the crazy bunch. He wondered how long it would take to bring them all down and make it in time for lunch break.

There were apparently around 9 former Death Eaters creating mass panic in the back alley ways of Diagon Alley. Harry would be the only one going to subdue them all in a quick and timely manner before things started going out of control.

After the great demise of Voldemort, crime rate in the Wizarding world crashed down and for a time most of the Aurors had almost no work until the world became peaceful again so to speak. It had seemed that after the lord of evil had died, criminals, villains and former Death Eater's alike had been too scared to do anything else but hide and wait it out until it was safe.

It was sort of ironic that the Savior of the Wizarding World was now an Auror who now moved around on missions 'exterminating' the so called Death Eaters trying to create chaos even though their precious dark lord was now forever gone.

Along the way Harry grabbed a handful of Floo powder and stowed away the papers full of information away in the inside pockets of his robes. The air around him was cool and he took no notice of the various Squibs, Witches, Wizards, Goblins and house elves as he made his way across the large room towards the fireplaces.

Here we go, Harry thought to himself as he headed towards a large brick fireplace lively with emerald green fire dancing and flickering merrily,"Diagon Alley." He said loudly and clearly before dropping the handful of Floo powder into the fire that he was standing in and braced himself for the dreaded sensation of Floo travel. There were many controversial things about the great wizard Harry Potter, however, there were one or two things that people all over the world could easily agree on, first was that he was single and the second was that he was a lousy Floo traveler.

And so as Harry finally exited out of the correct fireplace of some dusty and dark store near Burgen & Borkes , it was no surprise that as he stepped out of the sooty fireplace, he tripped on his own two feet and while flailing around to try and regain his balance grabbed a shrunken head and toppled down onto the floor in a heap of dust, old dried goat eyes and some pieces of old parchment.

Coughing as indiscreetly as possible Harry brushed off all of the items off of him, let go of the shrunken head, wiped his glasses and sat up trying to survey his surroundings and to make sure that he had not been heard to any outsiders who might have been wandering around the back alley ways of Diagon Alley.

Silence rang in his ears. The only sound he could hear were various slow feet shuffling against the cobblestone road outside and a few stray cats and dogs yowling and barking at each other.

When he determined that there was no one who had heard his arrival, he slowly got up from the filthy floor and dusted his black robes off, little puffs of dust and dirt coming off him and his robes as he swatted himself. He could smell the ash from the fireplace and the mustiness of the old and seemingly abandoned shop he had managed to somehow Floo to. What a miracle.

Harry automatically took his wand out and held it at his side, years of living in constant danger kicked in reflexively and he stood at taut attention listening and staying alert. His green eyes slowly scanned the dark and filthy area. Now how should he go about this? Go in with a bang or finish everything silently and quietly?

The lone wizard standing at attention in the room mused to himself silently, this was the fun part. It was deciding how he should go about his job that he took the most pleasure in.

"What a surprise, _Potter_." A familiar voice spat from somewhere in the darkness of the shop.

Harry froze instantly. His heart stopped beating and icy cold currents of shock coursed through him like a giant tidal wave. This voice…it hit too close to home, no, it did hit home. All the weeks and months of not hearing this voice had locked up something inside of Harry, and finally after hearing this voice, something inside of him collapsed and an outpouring of emotions burst out of it,"Malfoy." Harry's own voice was calm and collected as if he had expected to hear from this particular person. _What am I saying…_Harry's chest contracted painfully as he realized that both of them were back to using their designated names for each other. The dreaded last names…

The darkness obscured Harry's vision but out of the corner of his eyes he saw a shadow move and grow bigger as it walked towards him, and just as he had expected, it was Draco Malfoy. His hair as silver blond as ever and looking clean and cut as always. His face was the same emotionless face, but there seemed to be some unknown and half hidden emotion etched into the depths of his silver eyes. He was dressed in plain black robes with the Malfoy family crest sewn into the left breast pocket of his chest.

Draco stopped a few feet away from Harry. The distance wasn't far but it seemed like they were miles apart from each other.

"How have you been." The green eyed wizard's voice was unexpectedly calm and expectant.

Their eyes were drawn towards each other as if pushed and pulled by gravity itself. Magnetizing and hypnotizing.

Draco's perfectly arched eyebrows creased slightly as if that had not been the words he had expected Harry to say to him. It was as if he had had been forced to swallow some kind of noxious potion brewed by the one and only Hermione Granger,"Fine, and yourself?" his voice was smooth and even.

"Same." Harry said without hesitation.

Silence descended upon them like a heavy and stifling cloud of thick fog.

What else could they say.

What was with this superficial conversation. Draco frowned slightly, his silver eyes flashed in the dim light and the corner of his mouth turned down in distaste. He had expected Potter to run to him and throw those long arms around him and hold him close. This was not how he had imagined everything to be, this was not how he had wanted things to turn out, and this was definitely not how he had planned to meet Harry.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked calmly as he rolled his wand slowly between his forefinger and thumb. There were a million questions exploding in his head, too many thoughts, and too many images appearing one after another.

"Funny you should ask." Draco replied mildly,"Did you forget that I own this place now?"

Harry started for a moment, surprised how he could forget such a fact no matter how small about Draco.

The silver eyes scrutinized Harry as if he was missing something , there was something wrong. Something terribly wrong, he could feel the large rift that had appeared between them during the time they had spent apart,"What are you doing here?" he asked cautiously. His thin white fingers curled around his worn wand inside the pocket of his robe. Harry couldn't be here to arrest him now could he?

Harry stood still as his green eyes took in Draco's form. He had missed it so much and now just being in the same room as he was in made the desires he had worked so hard to repress begin to stir and awaken like some giant beast coming out of hibernation,"I'm in the middle of a job." He replied evenly. He hoped that Draco couldn't hear his want and need in his voice,"Rogue Death eaters." He added almost inaudibly.

Draco almost guffawed at that but managed to suppress it and just gave a quick nod,"Well…don't want to get in the way of you Potter." He said briskly as he moved to clean up the mess that Harry had made using the fire network.

Harry felt his hands tighten into fists as he watched Draco pass by him. He could smell his scent, feel his warmth, his presence. It was everything he had ever wanted but why…why did he have to meet him when he was on a job? He desperately wanted to reach out and pull the slim blonde into his arms, to just hold him for as long as he could,"Right…" Harry said instead as he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other and made it to the door. He hesitated and turned back to Draco who was busy flicking his wand while muttering spells to clean up the floor,"I'll…..er…I'll be back…so just wait?" he managed to say loudly enough .

Draco stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to face Harry,"Sure." He nodded once. Afterall…there was so much to talk about, so much to explain….

Harry smiled crookedly but his eyes immediately brightened,"Great. It won't take too long." He promised as he rushed out the door to the shop.

Draco sighed but let himself smile a little, silence descended in the shop once again as the dust settled. He could see that Harry had not changed at all from his awkward and slightly cowardly ways. With a last flick of his wand, he finished cleaning up the last of the papers and shrunken head,"Terrible with Floo travel as always." He said to himself quietly as he walked back to his place behind the dusty wooden counter and waited for Harry to return to him once again.

….

I'm SO SORRYYY for the delay guys. I hope this long chapter made up for it a little. I'll be updating as regularly as I can now.

Reviews are welcome and thanks for being patient!


	11. Chapter 11

Draco tapped the shoddy wooden desk boredly with a pale finger, his eyes scanning the empty and dusty shop, for some reason he like how old and messy it was and never bothered with making it cleaner and brighter. It had been a few hours since Harry had left the shop hunting the former Death Eaters and Draco was growing impatient as the stretch in time without Harry returning kept increasing.

Surely nothing happened to him right? Draco's finger grew still and he tensed for a moment but then shook his head and resumed his tapping. This was Harry Potter, one of the most accomplished and skilled Aurors of the day, a bunch of old bat crazy Death Eaters wouldn't be enough to bring him down.

But what if? Draco's brows furrowed in thought, anything could happen, so what if-? The train of thought never continued when someone burst in through the door of the shop with a sharp bang. Draco looked up quickly anticipating it to be Harry but to his immense disappointment, it was an employee of the Malfoy house,"Yes?" he asked crisply as he looked the fluttered looking person up and down in distaste. Why are you not Harry? he growled in his mind.

"I'm terribly sorry for interupting sir." the breathless and panic stricken employee rapidly began to talk,"But something has happened to your father and-"

Draco immediately stood up feeling an icy cold sense of dread slipping into him and without waiting for the poor employee to continue talking he waved him away,"I'll be there. Head back first and alert the others that I am going." he whipped out a sheet of parchment ignoring the obedient employee and opened a bottle of deep green ink to hastily scribble a note to Harry should he come by if he wasn't there.

_Trouble at home. Will be back as soon as I can._

_ Love Draco._

Draco grinned despite the situation he was in right now, and he left the note on the desk hoping that Harry would see it. Hopefully the crisis wasn't too big, he thought to himself, and sighing heavily he took out his wand and apparated away and to the Malfoy mansion but not without a last fleeting glimpse of the piece of parchment lying on the splintering counter.

-.-.-.-.

When Harry burst in through the doors of the old shop the sun that had been high in the sky was now dipping low in the horizon, he had expected Draco to be there but instead he found a note. Feeling a little disappointed, he sat down on the stool behind the counter and began his wait. Anticipation and impatience already gnawing on the inside of his chest.

The job of rounding up the last of the Death Eaters had taken longer than he had anticipated since they seemed to have an anticipated plan to catch and kill Harry, but when that failed, they had dispersed and apparated away to various hiding places with Harry managing to apprehend only two with great trouble. The rest, he had assigned to other Aurors since he was so anxious to get back to see Draco.

"I should have been faster." he mumbled to himself running his fingers through his messy hair. He cursed himself for being held up by a bunch of crazy people, he still had a lot to learn. But he still couldn't deny the sense of anticipation growing like a flame inside of him. It had been years since he had seen Draco. This was a meeting they were supposed to be having. To talk about everything, to explain what had happened.

But yet at the same time he was scared witless at what this confrontation would bring.

More hours passed by and Harry found himself dozing off into sleep mas he thought about Draco. When he checked his watch after falling out of the stool, he found that the time had moved forward to 4:34AM. It was early dawn and Draco still hadn't showed up.

The store was empty and silent, his only compnay, the shrunken head and bunch of other seemingly useless items lying around for sale. The darkness seemed to envelope Harry as he stood up dusting his robes off and sighing, he reluctantly took out his wand and gripped it hard looking at the door.

As if wishing and hoping would be enough to bring Draco back, Harry thought bitterly to himself as he hesitated for a moment before stuffing the note that Draco had written into the pocket of his robe and thought of home and apparated away. Disappointment was heavy in his heart and his insides felt leaden with some kind of yearning he knew would never be fulfilled.

-.-.-.-.

**Present day**

-.-.-.-.

Those were the last memories.

Draco walked himself to his desk at home. The smooth dark wood was laden with rolls and rolls of parchment, some still sealed and unread and a good many more unrolled and stacked in a somewhat orderly pile to the side.

The pureblood wizard settled himself into the black leather seat and shrugged his robes off suddenly feeling constricted and hot. When he had managed to bring the crisis under control and returned to the shop, there was no sign of Harry which wasn't a surprise since he had been gone for a day and a half (even working faster than he had ever worked in his life), and he also found that his note had disappeared, something he had spelled to make sure no one but Harry could see it much less touch it. A sign that Harry had come and gone.

It was years ago. Draco swallowed his regret and anger and pushed himself to read the rest of the documents lying around on his chaotic desk. None of it mattered anymore.

But if only. The back of his mind seemed to whisper to him. If only...what? He gripped his quill so hard it snapped in his hand and he sighed as he threw it to the side and rummaged around in his desk for a new one.

If only.

He hadn't gone back?

He had left his parents to deal with the crisis themselves?

If only.

They were both imprisoned now anyway. First his dad, next his mother. Why did he work so hard to save them that day? And why did it all happen on that specific day?

Draco suddenly buried his head into his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. I can't think like this, he told himself, it's no good. Of course you chose your parents, it was the right thing to do. They're your parents. Harry would understand.

But still.

What a bloody mess.

Draco slowly opened his eyes and looked up from his desk, his empty eyes scanning the expanse of his home study.

How could someone choose between their parents and their love and get a favorable outcome? The best of two things? Never. In this life, it was one or the other.

He had wrongly expected Harry to come back once, at least once after the incident. To maybe try again, but there was nothing. Harry hadn't shown up after that and Draco was too scared to contact the green eyed man. What if Harry was angry? What if Harry thought that Draco had purposely taken his time and not come back? And yet still, Draco had come back everyday to wait for Harry, even taking his work with him to the dirty shop.

There was a knock on the door snapping Draco out of his thoughts,"I brought some tea." a soft voice came through the door.

"Come in." he called out as he set about busying himself with work he was supposed to be doing. He smiled when his wife walked in carrying a little tray laden with a steaming cup and a little plate of small biscuits.

This was the life he lead now. This life was what he was supposed to be enjoying.

She placed the tray on the corner of his desk, leaned in to kiss him on the cheek and quietly walked away closing the door behind her. Her shoes _tapped tapped tapped_ away on the cold marble floors growing fainter with each step she took away from him.

Draco glanced at the tray and sighed a little setting his quill down. Time did seem to travel fast.

Before anyone knew it, they were living the life they had never wanted and yet still hoping that they would somehow turn it all around and make their dreams reality.

It was too late now. He gave himself a deprecating bitter half smile as he took a sip of the steaming beverage and set it back down on the tray with a little _clink._

She did know how to make a good cup of tea though.

Draco cracked open an unread roll of parchment and unraveled it to begin his day's work. It was all in the past now and nothing would change that. Not even something that would let him travel back in time to fix it all.

Done is done.


	12. Chapter 12

**Warning-**

**The following chapter contains mature content. **

**It's the last half of the chapter****- for those of you who want to skip that part. **

I'm not big on writing this kind of stuff, but for some reason I couldn't resist writing it into this particular chapter.

Also, I'm sorry for the typos and the spelling mistakes in the past chapters. It's a little annoying. I know.

Comments are very appreciated. Partly because I want to know what you people think and if you like it or not.

Thank you very much :]

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A few days passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening. The brief meeting at the train station was but a gradually fading memory to Draco as he sat down at his desk to start his work early in the morning like usual. He picked up a quill and made to dip the nub into the pot of ink when a large black and white owl suddenly flew in through his open window, circling overhead once before dropping a thin brown envelope onto his desk and flew out with a soft hoot.

Draco sat there unmoving, a little surprised at what had happened. Usually if he had letters to receive they would first go through to his wife who filtered out the ones for business and for personal matters. If something unprecedented like this happened, it had a way of messing with his daily schedule and throw everything off balance, something he hated very much.

Frowning, he set his quill in the bottle of ink and picked up the envelope muttering about how he would have a nice long chat with the sender of the letter about following rules and policies. But when he saw the name of the person who sent it, he dropped it immediately heart beating in a way that he had thought it was no longer capable of. Why would **he** send one now of all times? Draco wondered to himself and picked up the letter with surprisingly steady hands despite how shaky he was feeling on the inside.

"Seems like his handwriting is still the same chicken scratch it was years ago." Draco felt himself smile a little looking at the familiar writing and then turned the envelope over to open it.

The paper was smooth, thick, and creamy to the touch and as Draco slid the paper out of the thin brown envelope he eagerly pored over the contents. Much to his dismay and disappointment, the letter was short, much too short, however, what he read was a whole different matter, it made something inside of him jolt to life.

_Meet me at your shop. Noon. Tomorrow. _

_H.P_

The first question to come to Draco was why? And as soon as that question came and went, it seemed to open the floodgates to a torrent of other questions and comments that didn't seem to be relevant to this invitation of sorts, or maybe it was.

It was in the past. Why do this all over again? What's the point? It was done. Should he go? Obviously the answer was yes, he should go. It was the least he could do to make up for being late years ago, he also _wanted_ to go. But then again, did all of this matter now?

Draco sighed heavily, was he ready to reopen that door hiding the mess he had managed to stuff in and hide? The wounds, the anger, the regret...was he ready to face it all right now when he couldn't years ago?

But his mind was made up, even if he didn't want to think about it. He would go.

If it was a chance to see Harry, then he would go.

It was a weakness he hated and yet loved at the same time.

-.-.-.-.-.

Harry hunched over his desk that was littered with papers, parchments, broken quills, empty ink bottles, and wrappers of chocolate frogs he had unconsciously consumed in huge amounts as he was working. Why had he sent that owl to Draco again? Why? What had he been thinking? Was he going mental?

Around him he could hear the rustles of parchment and the murmer of people talking about some dangerous wizard on the loose that people were having trouble capturing, but he paid no attention to any of it. He was having a crisis of his own at the moment.

Spur of the moment, Harry thought as he straightened up and began to clear his desk of all the trash littering it. It was a long overdue confrontation anyway, he reasoned with himself as he finished up for the day and stood up to go home. Just for definite closure, but there was a pounding in his chest that made him think that there was another reason.

Closure for himself? Harry thought back to the not so distant past when he and Draco had looked at each other at the train station while sending their kids off to Hogwarts, they hardly acknowledged each other, and then just moved on from that day as if nothing had happened between them in the past. It was like they were pretending or something.

It was dumb, he should have had his closure in the years he hadn't seen or heard from Draco, when the break had been definite. This whole mess was partly Harry's fault to begin with. The messy haired man decided to walk for a while before apparating home. He wanted a few moments to himself to think.

I should have gone back, Harry tried to choke back the dark consuming thoughts as he stepped outside into the cool night. I should have gone back to see him. But the fact was, he didn't. Harry didn't go back to see Draco even when he knew that he was going to be waiting for him.

Why? Why didn't I go back? Harry breathed in deeply as a cool breeze laced with the faint aroma of coffee brushed past him. The sky was clear and the moon was up high in the sky shining brightly. A full moon, he gazed at it for a moment before resuming his solitary walk hoping to clear his head a little. Sending that owl was the most impulsive thing he had ever done, besides a bunch of other things he had done back in his school years (Like going into the Forbidden Forest to meet a giant spider, dropping out of school to hunt Horcruxes with his two bestfriends while being chased by a crazy dark wizard, kissing Ginny in front of everyone especially Ron...) But then again it wasn't like the situation back then had given him any other choices...besides Ginny of course. The last one made Harry take a sharp intake of breath. He was with Ginny now. Ginny. He clenched his jaws tightly at the thought of her, her red hair, pale face, and the scent of flowers that always seemed to encompass her. He loved her, he did, more than anything, but Draco was still overshadowing her, drowning her out with just a simple thought.

And still Harry walked on. Why didn't I go back? The same question, the same thoughts. He was running around in circles and obviously going nowhere.

Suddenly something seemed to reach out to him from the back of his mind, because he mght have blamed me, something in Harry's mind whispered to him. He might have blamed me for his parents' imprisonment to Azkaban. The former Gryffindor made his way down the surprisingly empty street letting himself relax and just enjoy the weather. Yellow streetlights dotting the roads lit up the darkness with a sort of ghastly garish color making Harry decide that he liked the moonlight better. It was a nice soft white light. Soft silver light? His mind flashed to the color of Draco's eyes and a pang slammed into his chest that made him take a shuddering breath before recovering. It was instantaneous and lasted for no more than a split second but it was enough to almost incapacitate Harry with old emotions that he had managed to choke back and block out for so long until now that is, until he had seen Draco.

This confrontation, this meeting...it was going to be a good thing right? Harry sighed out heavily as he walked on, anything could happen especially since it had been years, and he was so sure that Draco was going to be furious, for all he knew their meeting could turn into a giant bloody battle to the death.

Who knew for sure though? He would have to see how it went, and that was only if Draco decided to show up.

For Merlin's sake, Harry hoped with everything that he had that Draco would show up. It was about time that they meet after all...

-.-.-.-.

**Next day. Noon. Borgin and Burkes**

-.-.-.-.

The sky was clear, the sun bright, and the day deliciously warm with a cool breeze blowing every now and then, it was the sort of day that made everyone go out for a stroll in the park or have a picnic on a grassy bank near a river or lake.

And yet, in the twisted dark corridors of stone somewhere in the obscure areas of Diagon Alley where the sunlight and beautiful day didn't seem to quite reach into a dusty, dark, old shop, two people were about to meet.

Neither of them knew who got there first.

Draco was inside.

Harry was outside.

They were too busy panicking on the inside and not paying enough attention to their surroundings. Not that there was anything going on around them worth paying attention to.

What would they say? What would they do? Do? Of course they wouldn't **do **anything. They would just talk, but talk about what?

All those thoughts running around in their heads until finally, Harry pushed the door open to the little dirty shop and stepped inside. As far as he could tell, he thought to himself as he gave the place a quick once over, it still looked the same as it did years ago when he first visited the place by accident.

"Took you long enough." a voice seemed to purr from the shadows behind the countertop and as Harry walked closer to the voice, he could see Draco, in all his simple extravagence perched on a wooden stool with his arms crossed, flowing robes and all. Blonde hair slicked back, face pale, and eyes the color of silver. His trademark smirk slightly curving one side of his mouth up.

As Harry took in Draco's appearance, suddenly he felt as if he were young again, that he was still a teenager even though years had passed. This sudden meeting seemed to reverse the time for him, taking him back to the past when the two people should have talked but were instead separated by bad choices and life.

"It wouldn't kill you to be a bit more patient." Harry found himself retorting back to him as he came to a stop in front of Draco. The only obstacle between them was the splintering countertop. It was like a barrier, almost cautioning him against getting too close, because well, who knew what would happen?

Silence crashed into the room suddenly as the two men stared at each other almost hungrily. Caution was still limiting their movements and careful tentative movements had to be made with a slowness that pained them. They were like predators almost, sizing each other up, eyeing each other wearily and preparing to strike should either of them feel threatened. It seemed, to the both of them in one way or another, that there was no remaining trust to be had between the two of them, but maybe it was just an assumption.

Each person had led their own life and each person had gone through years without the other individual.

Spending years apart from each other and now suddenly, they were in the same room once again. Funny how life seemed to work, or was it just the choices they made? Fate or chance? Both or neither?

"Been a while Malfoy." Harry clumsily tried to think of something to say as he stood there behind the countertop completely at a loss of what to do. There was so much to say and explain, and 'been a while Malfoy' was the best he could do? They had to get down to business here and the first words to come out of his mouth were words that seemed to come from an enemy.

Draco arched an elegant eyebrow and looked at Harry, it seems, he thought to himself, that very few things changed with Harry Potter,"It's Draco my dear." he had to bite the inside of his cheek to suppress a grin, if he recalled correctly, he had said something along those lines years ago,"And I do have to ask as to why you would hold a reunion in this filthy place? You know that there are infinitely better places." he looked at the surprised looking man across from him. his arms ached to hold the green eyed man. The only thing separating them was the countertop, an obstacle easily overcome.

Other obstacles however, he restrained himself from saying anything or doing anything unnecessary as he studied the details of his former classmate, other obstacles were not going to be as easy to cross. Harry's shoulders were broader, his face more defined, and the lines around his eyes a bit more pronounced than he had imagined, other than that though, there was nothing that looked to have changed, only there seemed to be a hidden depth within him now, that there hadn't been before even after all the hardships of his younger years.

"Sorry." Harry apologized relaxing at Draco's light teasing,"It was the only place I could think of." that we might be able to be alone in privacy without anyone to bother us, he thought the rest of it to himself as he studied Draco. The man was still slim, fine boned, and pale. He did grow taller but was still shorter than Harry and his face was more handsome than pretty as it had been years ago, but other than that, he still looked as youthful as ever. He now had a sophisticated aura about him, better than the pompous air that had clung to him in the past, although a certain snobbishness was still lurking around. It was a type of snobbishness that only Draco could make endearing and childlike. A large dog with a small bark, or something like that although not too many people could see it the way Harry did.

"Yes, well." Draco stood up from the stool,"Not exactly the best place for the likes of us though." he sniffed and made his way towards Harry. His initial nervousness had disappeared and was replaced with a long supressed emotion that even he could not name. True, there was a lot of conflict here, a lot of things that needed to be dragged out into the open for both people to see and know, but right now, this was a moment between them that seemed to be necessary, or rather, just more important.

Harry stood frozen as Draco slowly came towards him, heart beating fast, palms a bit sweaty, adrenaline shooting through his body like electricity. It was a little unnerving how little things seemed to have changed and yet at the same time, by how collosal the differences seemed to be,"Likes of us?" he managed to breath out when Draco stood in front of him, a look of utter boyish amusement all over his face. There was that Slytherin look of his, the look of knowing that he had complete control over the situation.

"Likes of us." Draco repeated as if it were the answer smiling as they stared into each others' eyes in silence. Long forgotten and supressed emotions were starting to rise up and crash over them in giant waves that left the two of them scrambling around for air and some sort of stability, the turmoil of emotions that was beginning to stir and awaken inside of them was frightening. It was simply overwhelming.

They seemed to be locked in each others' gaze. Neither of them moving and neither of speaking for fear of breaking the certain ambiance that had settled itself over everything.

Then suddenly, Draco leaned in and gently, almost like a whisper, pressed his lips against Harry's in a way that he couldn't be exactly sure if they had touched or not. It was that action that seemed to break the little tender moment and from it emerged something stronger and needier that grasped the two men sharply in its claws and possess them in a way that banished all other thoughts but of each other from their minds.

Kisses grew more frequent and aggressive, hands were grasping and tearing at places that were both familiar and new, moans were loud and filled with desire. Heat bloomed slowly within their bodies until it seeped out to touch the other person in a delicate way that only humans could be capable of. Clothing was slowly being stripped off and thrown aside thoughtlessly and when Draco was pressed to the floor breathing hard, eyes glossed over with a long neglected desire looking into Harry's eyes, he barely audibly whispered a few words that made Harry pause for a moment and then swiftly enter him causing Draco to close his eyes and let out a little cry that only seemed to fuel both of their needs for each other.

This moment was wrong. This whole scenario was wrong. But it felt so right, it felt so perfect. There was nothing more fulfilling and satisfying than this.

Just let the present be enough, let the present just be.

How had things come to this?

Draco could feel a delicious pressure starting to build up inside of him. Sweat beading his forehead, cheeks brushed with a lovely deep red, hands clamped over his own mouth to muffle the sounds that were straining to escape from his lips. He could blearily make out Harry's face above him through a haze of lust, the pleasure and desire on his face was unmistakable. Every muscle strained, every nerve seemed to shudder and crave for more, every thought was only of each other. The pressure kept building and building and soon Draco dropped his hands from his mouth not caring about how loud his moans were and reached up to wrap his arms around Harry's neck, too lost in the sensation that seemed to tightly grab and submerge him. He could feel Harry slow down and nibble his neck causing Draco to shudder and pull away from him with a little scowl once he realized the green eyed man's intentions.

"Potter." he warned breathing hard when he saw the mischevious look in his bright green eyes,"Don't hold back from me." he was on the razor edge of the precipice, precariously balanced and about to fall into his wants when Harry stopped altogether eliciting a glare from Draco,"So we're going to play it that way are we?" he frowned and made to get up and flip Harry to the ground when suddenly he felt a sensation go through him like electricity that made Draco shudder and moan involuntarily.

"Don't be in such a hurry." Harry breathed as he grasped Draco's shaft in one hand and began to work a hand up and down it's length,"It's been too long since we've been together. I want to enjoy it." his voice was low and husky. He had missed Draco, he had missed all of this, and like he had said, it had been too long since they had been together. He wouldn't let a moment go to waste. A part of him was a little surprised at his uncharacteristic aggressiveness, usually it was Draco that displayed this tendency.

Draco didn't say anything, more like he couldn't say anything because Harry was now kissing him, an effective way to block any sounds or words that might tumble from his lips. It _had_ been too long since they've been together. He reached up and let his fingers run through Harry's messy hair bringing him closer in the process and deepening the kiss, closing his eyes and losing himself to the dominant decadence that seemed to overflow out of him as Harry rubbed a thumb over the sensitive part of him causing him to shudder again and moan into the kiss. He was with Harry now. They were together.

A mix of sweat and tongues, a mix of limbs and breaths, a mix of moans and tears. All atop a pile of robes and other abandoned articles of clothing in a dirty little shop that no one visited.

Everything was perfect.


	13. Chapter 13

Between the two of them, Draco was the first one to wake up. His eyes opened slowly as he blearily looked around noticing that the sun had gone down considerably and that they were still lying on the floor atop their discarded clothes with someone's robe covering their lower half as they lay there. He relaxed into Harry's chest enjoying the warmth that came from him and for a moment, it was like nothing had changed.

They were together like they had been before.

The giant rift that opened between them wasn't there anymore.

And they could just live happily ever after.

If only.

The quiet was beginning to become disconcerting as Draco lay there fully awake in Harry's arms. He could hear the slight creaking of the old shop, the barely audible but steady breathing of Harry as he slept on, and strangely his own heart beat. The slow and steady rhythm unexpectedly reminding himself that he was alive, which of course he knew, but he was alive.

He half expected his wife to come charging in wand raised and pointed at him, the killing curse on the tip of her tongue. But there was just Harry and him.

Maybe this had been the wrong thing to do.

Maybe? Draco shut his eyes, of course it was wrong. They were both married. They both had kids. They both had their own families. The past was supposed to stay in the past.

Yet here they both were.

Both of them knew that there was no good ending in their story together. There was never going to be.

Harry murmured something in his sleep and pulled Draco closer to his chest nuzzling into his neck before settling into a deep slumber once more.

Draco could almost feel desperation beginning to claw its way out of the depths of his heart. He done the irreversible. The unforgiveable. Letting his elation of seeing Harry get the better of him had been a mistake. A big one and now it was going to cost them.

"Thinking about it?" a voice rough with sleep sounded in his ear making Draco shiver at the sensation.

"How did you know?" he asked not bothering to roll to his side to face Harry. The way things were, it was better that they didn't look at each other even if Harry was holding him in his arms.

"I just knew." came the ready reply.

"We were just supposed to talk." Draco whispered softly,"How did it end up like this?" he felt Harry tighten his hold on him.

There was a moment of silence, and then,"It was a mistake to meet you." Harry's voice was quiet,"I shouldn't have sent that owl. I don't know what I was thinking."

Draco laughed bitterly,"You weren't thinking." he pointed out,"You never do."

"I'm sorry." Harry said quietly,"Do you regret it?" he asked after a pause.

"No, of course not, I just wish..." he paused for a moment trying to put his thoughts into a comprehensible structure that could make Harry understand,"I just wish..." he began again but then let it drop when he couldn't think of anything that seemed to fit.

"I know." Harry murmered,"I know." and he did know. It was just too much for a single word to carry the weight, the meaning, and the value properly.

Everything was so complicated, nothing was clear cut and everything seemed to be contradictory, even their feelings and emotions.

A few minutes of silence passed by and then Draco asked the question that had been bothering him since years ago,"Why didn't you come back?" he was careful as he rolled to his side to face Harry, legs tangling with each other as they pulled each other closer. Silver eyes looking into green ones.

Harry bit down on his lip for a moment and for a moment he was seriously considering not telling Draco, but after catching a glimpse of past hurt he sighed,"I was scared." he admitted quietly.

"Scared?" Draco raised an eyebrow in disbelief,"You? The Boy Who Lived? The saviour? The one who managed to steal a Slytherin's heart?" he held back a laugh when he saw how seriously Harry was looking at him,"Scared of what exactly?" he was curious.

"I...I had a hunch about your family trouble." Harry began quietly and then buried his face into Draco's neck,"I wasn't working on the case, but a few people around me were." his voice was muffled,"So I didn't know what exactly was happening. I tried to find out but there were...spells...regulations..." his voice trailed off when he felt Draco's body stiffen. He had messed up. Harry felt his heart clench and a panic seemed to be set off in his body like an alarm.

All the breath in Draco's body seemed to leave him and the light joking mood he had been in immediately darkened,"So you knew." his voice was low and he pulled away from Harry so that he could look at his face,"You knew about it and-" his voice rose.

"I know!" Harry cut in squeezing his eyes shut,"I should have told you, I'm sorry, they're your parents and-" he was interrupted when he felt a sharp pinch on his cheeks and opened his eyes to see that Draco had reached up and pulled his cheeks out,"Dat hurts." he complained struggling to get away.

"I'm not mad about _that _you bloody fool." Draco snapped and sat up unable to bear it any longer,"You didn't come back because of a reason like that?" he looked down at the bewildered man still frozen in place, cheeks red and slightly swollen. It was ridiculous, so ridiculous that he wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. Their lives were a mess partly because of a stupid reason like that as small as it was.

"Er.." Harry blinked and sat up slowly as well,"Isn't that reason enough?" he asked cautiously looking at the irritated looking blond.

"Bunch of rubbish." Draco muttered,"I don't know you anymore, you've changed into a bigger ninny than you've always been."

"That's not tr-" Harry looked up from his hands to protest but shut his mouth immediately when he saw the look on Draco's face.

"Oh really?" Draco challenged and looked at Harry, his cheeks were beginning to redden with anger,"Since when did you start to run away from everything? Since when did the almighty Gryffindor cower like a pansy in front of a Slytherin? Was I not worth it? _Potter_?" he spat at Harry who was frozen in place not able to comprehend what was going on in the least,"You killed a basilisk, you fought a dragon, you overcame **Voldemort**, but you couldn't face me?!" his voice rose to a shout and he glowered at Harry breathing hard.

"I didn't...I just...thought." Harry stumbled over his words unable to form coherent sentences. He was just too caught off guard at this reaction. This was the scenario he had thought **least** likely to happen, in fact, he hadn't even imagined this happening at all.

"Now it's too late." Draco continued heatedly,"Do you think a sorry and a 'Oops I didn't mean to', is going to fix this? We're both _married_ for merlin's sake, we have _kids_, a family!" anger was rising rapidly in his chest and suddenly he wanted to just go out and destroy something, anything, just to let the rage go,"You understand that don't you _Potter_?" he seemed to spit the name out as he took a deep breath to try and steady himself and looked at Harry,"This is on you. The reason why we can't ever be happy together is because of **you**." his eyes were accusing and angry as they pinned Harry in place unable to think and unable to move.

Harry felt himself deflate, a bone aching sadness and dread was beginning to creep up on him in an unpleasant icy way. There was nothing that he could say, nothing that he could do, there was absolutely nothing for him.

Draco took deep breaths to calm himself down and when he found himself steady and not shaking anymore he sorted through the clothes around him trying to find what was his however after a few moments of fumbling around in the now dark shop, he gave a frustrated sigh and just threw everything down refusing to move. Anger was still simmering dangerously inside of him like a cauldron boiling hotly directly over a fire.

Everything was terrible now. It had all gone downhill from the sex. It was always the sex no matter how good it was. Draco suddenly buried his face into his hands, tears were threatening to spill down his face and that was the last thing he wanted or needed. Anger, regret, sadness, all those emotions were struggling to burst out of him in some way and it was starting to weigh him down in ways that made him want to just shut down from the world.

Suddenly Draco felt a pair of strong arms wrap around him and bring him close to a chest he was familiar with.

And oh how he wanted to struggle against it, how he wanted to break free from those arms, to break free from these emotions and live freely.

But he couldn't. He could never.

"Why did you do this to me?" Draco's voice came out muffled, his throat was closing up from trying to hold back his tears,"Why did you do this to me?!" he lifted his head from his hands and looked at Harry with those hateful tears streaming down his face, cheeks pink and eyes bright.

Harry didn't say anything. He couldn't. But if only there was some way to turn back the time and take back his mistakes, to go back to that time and swallow his cowardice. He had never thought that his decision would follow them this far and mess up everything.

Impulse, he thought to himself as he held Draco tightly in his arms, screw impulse. But he was in no position to blame anything or anyone but himself. Why he felt the way he had in the past to drive him to make such a bad decision, Harry wouldn't know and he would never find out.

Sobs were trickling out of Draco at a steady rate now and the blond man buried his face into Harry's chest circling his arms around his waist and pressing close to him. The pain of waiting, the pain of wondering, everything he had gone through alone in the past was starting to come back in full now in the form of tears.

Some day to have anticipated, he thought to himself bitterly as he wept in the arms of the person who was the source of everything.

With a sudden jolt, a crushing realization seem to ram its way to the front of Harry's mind as he quietly held Draco in his arms. Right now, he was the adversary, the villain, the bad guy, and the thought paralyzed him, it horrified him.

All he could do was hold the man he had broken.

-.-.-.-.

Comments are welcomed.

Thank you for reading!

And I'm sorry if there are any errors.


	14. Chapter 14

A good hour or two passed before Draco felt all cried out and was finally able to stop, and still Harry held him.

Quietly and gently.

Draco didn't pull away and let Harry hold him. He had said hurtful things, true things, but things that were still no less hurtful. He had meant what he said but he also didn't at the same time,"I'm not going to apologize." he said quietly, his voice was stuffed and hoarse from all the crying.

"You don't need to." Harry replied in a sullen sort of way. He fully understood why Draco had said the things he had, he knew the reasons, but he couldn't deny that the way he had said 'Potter' didn't sting him a bit. Hearing his last name used like that reminded him of the times they were sworn enemies. When they genuinely hated each other with all the passion they possessed. Those times had been easier, much simpler.

"You know that we shouldn't do this again." Draco put out the obvious statement, half of it trying to convince himself and the other half to tell Harry in the most direct way possible.

But he was in Harry's arms, he was with the person that he wanted to be with for the rest of his life, it was so hard to let him go again and for merlin's sake he was starting to sound like a pansy in one of those weekly witch dramas. How could he not feel that way though? How could he resist Harry? After being denied of any kind of correspondence for so long, this was the first time in years that they were finally meeting and it would be the last for as long as they lived.

Friends? Out of the question. The two individuals could never go back to those days. They were too in love and too attached to each other.

"I know." was all Harry said again. He could feel his heart turn cold and drop to his stomach, had he not been the one holding Draco, he probably would have started leaking tears of his own as well.

"Is that really all you can say?" Draco frowned and pulled away to look at Harry's face. His eyes were pink and swollen as well as the tip of his nose,"I just said that we can't ever see each other again and 'I know' is all you say?" his voice was soft and demanding but he had lost all the anger he had been silently harboring.

Brilliant green eyes looked into silver ones, barely visible in the darkness of Borgin & Burkes,"What am I supposed to say?" he wanted to know, his voice was almost desperate but not quite,"That I wish I could see you again?" he laughed harshly, his own throat beginning to strain with the tears he was holding back.

Draco was silent as he looked at Harry and then sighed,"What a pathetic sight we make up, you and I. Slytherin's prince and the saviour of the wizarding world locked in each other's arms and crying like bloody babies." he laughed softly,"Not quite how we imagined our long anticipated meeting to go is it?"

"No." Harry murmured and reached out a hand to cup the side of Draco's face and bring him in for a gentle kiss,"Not how I imagined it at all." his voice was a sigh as he let go of Draco and groped around him until he found his wand and lit the tip of it with a spell illuminating everything in the shop with a bright white light.

He and Draco squinted at the sudden brightness of it and once their eyes adjusted to the light, they looked at each other and started to laugh at their unsightly appearances. They looked like wild men, hair a mess, dust from the floor smeared on them, naked. But the laughter was cut short as they continued to look at each other.

This would be the last.

Silently the two men fumbled around on the floor for their belongings and began to redress themselves.

Theirs was a meeting that didn't have to happen. It wasn't supposed to happen.

Draco pulled on his white silk shirt and began to button up the pearl buttons from top to bottom. Fingers a little clumsy and stiff.

They should have just let the past go.

Harry dusted off his black robes and slid them over his collared shirt and reached for his pants.

Instead their feelings and selfishness for each other got in the way and made a bigger mess of things.

But how could they forget?

"How could we...how could I forget?" Harry asked stumbling over his words once they were both fully dressed. The two people now stood an arms length from each other coincidently separated by the countertop.

Draco bit the inside of his cheek,"Of course you can't forget me." he finally told Harry,"Why would you want to forget the best part of your life?" he attempted a cheeky smile but it came out as a grimace. No one could erase the memories from their minds, not unless someone performed a memory charm or something to that effect but that was besides the point, the point was that neither person wasnted to forget, they couldn't. They had been too tightly wound around and incorporated into each other's lives no matter how long they'd been apart.

The too white light from Harry's wand cast shadows around them and made the features of their faces stand out more. The bags underneath their eyes were more pronounced, lines that delicately webbed out from the corners of their eyes indicated signs of gradual aging.

They had both changed, and it was just now, that the realization was just starting to hit them in its entirety.

"There's no more to this, Harry." Draco said quietly and looked straight into his eyes. Strength of will, strength of character, tenacity, all of that could be see hidden in Draco's gaze and Harry found that he couldn't do or say anything in response.

Besides, hadn't he lost that right when he had made his decision years ago?

"I love you." Harry said instead, his gaze was steady and his tone was soft. He understood that this was goodbye, the final and proper goodbye. It couldn't be changed, decisions had been made and it was too late to change them, their present and future had already been built upon them.

"I love _you_." Draco replied and although his voice was soft, there was a hidden intensity that shone for a brief moment before fading into a dullness that faded. He walked around the countertop and pressed himself into Harry's chest wrapping his arms around his neck to kiss him, because after this...after this...his thoughts trailed off as his eyes closed and he let himself get lost in it.

Harry reached a hand up to the back of Draco's neck to bring him closer deepening the kiss. The last kiss, he thought to himself wryly, what a dramatic end. His thoughts were sarcastic even in this situation.

Soft, slow, warm.

The two people slowly broke away breathing hard. Any longer and things would start to progress like it had the first time and that was something they had to stop.

Their time was over.

Harry opened his mouth to ssay something but Draco interrupted him,"I wish we could just pretend..." his voice trailed off and he looked down unsure of what he was going to say, by the gods, here he was, a fully grown male adult, saying things as if he were a young girl, and yet here he was thinking.

I wish we could pretend that we didn't have a family, that we were together, that nothing was wrong, that we would get our true happy ending.

There was silence and then suddenly Harry's voice tumbled out through his lips forming words that even he was surprised to hear himself say,"Let's just pretend then."

Draco looked up at him for a moment after a split second of surprise and then his face broke out into a slight smile,"Just pretend." he repeated.

Let's just pretend.

What a laugh, what a joke, what a riot.

What were they? School girls? Little kids skipping off into some dreamland with unicorns?

It amazed him how immature and naive he could be even as a grown man. Such thoughts...

The two people stood in front of each other in silence unwilling to move. All they wanted was each other and all they wanted was to be happy together but they were far too past that point and now the only thing they could do to make it easier on themselves was to just drop it and move on.

"Let's just pretend." Draco repeated again, his voice was fading as he turned around unwillingly. There was a bone aching sadness that was starting to pound within him and he knew that it would take years for it to fade even a little bit. If he had any tears left, he would be shedding them right now but he had cried them all out earlier.

Illusion. The word was an illusion. It was a fake. A bloody hollow hope. But it was something.

Harry shut his eyes against the pain and then opened them letting the light on the tip of his wand fade away quietly into darkness,"Yea." he breathed out and then opened his eyes to find that Draco was gone. He had walked away.

It had taken too many years to end it.

Draco briskly walked down the dark twisting corridors hands in his pockets. He had been away from home too long and he needed to hurry back. But as he kept walking the hollow feeling inside his chest seemed to grow, the words, let's just pretend kept repeating in his mind,"Bloody stupid." he muttered to himself as he came to a stop and leaned against the stone wall he was standing next to suddenly feeling weary.

Night had fallen long ago it seemed, the sky was clear and yet the stars couldn't be seen although the moon was bright. There were no people milling about in this area since it was secluded not to mention that it was late and most of the shops were closed for the night.

They would move on. Only a thread connecting their past to the present and then to the future as they continued to live. Memories would never be forgotten and their feelings for each other would never fade but they had other people in their lives, the people they owed loyalty, duty, and love to.

Harry quietly pushed the door of the shop and stepped out into the night. The door clunked shut behind him as he stood there almost at a loss. He realized that without Malfoy, without Draco shadowing his life and thoughts, he felt unachored to life. As if he was just floating around somewhere in the air.

A gentle breeze slithered through the stone alleyways and whooshed past him as he began to walk away from Borgin & Burkes. He had a life to get back to, a family to take care of, obligations to meet.

If only he could go back to that time, his footsteps echoed in the stone surroundings as he walked, if only he could have done things differently. Then he could have offered something better to Draco, he could have said something better than the words, 'let's just pretend.'

Pretend what though? Pretend it never happened? Pretend that they were still going to be together one day? Pretend that they had a choice?

But it was done and now there was no point in thinking too much about it. Both people had made their choices and were now walking further and further away from each other. It had been a pointless meeting. The only thing that seemed to have happened was the reopening of old wounds, wounds that had already healed and now it would take so much longer for them to recover.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Flashback. Hogwarts. **

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Harry grumbled under his breath in an unbecoming way as he rolled over onto his back trying to get into a comfortable position on his bed. He was sulking, his lower lip jutting out into a little pout and his eyes narrowed into a slight glare. It had been the first time they had fought since dating and he had never been so stressed in his life.

He didn't know if he should be mad at Draco or just pretend that he hadn't seen anything. It couldn't have been a big deal anyway. Right?

Just then the door to the room busted open and in came Draco walking airily, a smile on his face as if the fight before hadn't happened. When he saw Harry roll over onto his side to avoid looking at him, he frowned and paused for a moment before throwing his book bag onto his bed and then made his way to Harry,"Don't tell me that you're still sulking about that." he climbed onto the bed and sat there cross legged staring at his back.

"I don't know what you're talking about." came the stiff reply. Harry crossed his arms over his chest and made a resolution to stare at the wall in front of him. Don't give in to the temptation, he told himself, don't look at Draco. He would resist this time, oh yes, he would resist.

Draco laughed and reached over to roll Harry onto his back but the Gryffindor resisted and refused to budge. Exasperated, Draco leaned over him to look at his face but Harry shut his eyes to avoid the confrontation.

"Oh for Merlin's sake Harry." Draco huffed stifling a laugh and sat back down,"I already told you it was nothing." he reached out and rested a hand on Harry's arm,"Accidents happen all the time."

"An accident?" Harry finally couldn't take it anymore and sat up, turning to face Draco,"She was _smogging_ you!" he snapped,"No one trips over nothing and lands on your face to give you a wet one!" he frowned at the laughing blond man sitting in front of him,"I'm so glad to see that you're having a good time of it." he muttered and was about to lie back down and sulk some more when Draco's hand shot out and grabbed him.

"Don't be silly Potter." he grinned and kissed Harry on the mouth,"Jealousy doesn't become you." he kissed him again.

"Who says anyone is jealous?" Harry mumbled as he pulled Draco into his arms possessively.

The Slytherin student laughed and kissed the Gryffindor student lightly on the neck,"Whatever you say." he wrapped his arms around Harry affectionately,"If you're still mad about that, just pretend you didn't see anything." he suggested lightly.

"I couldn't do that even if I tried." Harry growled, his arms tightened around Draco's waist.

Later that night as the two people lay side by side on the beds that they had pushed together some time before, Draco turned over onto his side to look at Harry's profile. The lights were off and so they were lying in darkness, the curtains were drawn over the window so moonlight couldn't get in.

"Hey Harry." Draco's voice was quiet and serious, signs that he had been thinking about something a lot.

"What is it?" Harry opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Draco. In moments like these, he knew that Draco would be revealing some thought to him that he had been cautiously thinking about by himself unable to share it with Harry until he felt ready.

"What if we never end up together after this?" Draco asked,"What if something happens and for some reason we end up just going different ways and marry different people?" his tone was heavy, an indication that he had been thinking seriously about this matter for days.

Harry paused for a moment not expecting the question,"What brought this on all of a sudden?" he asked shifting his body so that he had an arm over Draco's body pulling him close. It wasn't like Draco to think of things like this, he was a surprisingly optomistic boy when it came to their relationship.

"Just answer the question Harry." Draco said impatiently as he snuggled in closer to the Gryffindor student.

"Then I suppose..." Harry struggled to think of a decent answer,"I suppose that's that then." he ended lamely.

Draco snorted,"I should have figured that you wouldn't answer properly." expecting Harry to say something that would somehow appease him had been too much of an expectation apparently.

"Don't be so rude." Harry frowned into the darkness and absently ran his fingers through Draco's hair. He didn't know what Malfoy put in his hair to make it so soft, but by the gods did it feel good, it was starting to put him to sleep,"Draco, if that happens, then nothing can change it." his voice was husky,"Just remember the times we were together, remember the memories we made, remember me. I'll always love you." he murmured,"No matter what."

Draco felt himself relax into Harry's warm arms. The answer he had been expecting was that they'd always be together. No matter what. Not this realistic rubbish. But then again, Harry was a realist and unable to lie to people he cared about.

"I love you." Draco mumbled shyly into Harry's chest and then closed his eyes to sleep. He would do anything to keep this moment forever, to keep this relationship forever, and he had a feeling, a good feeling that they would be together in the end.

"I love you too." Harry replied drowsily. What was the problem? They would be together forever. Problem solved.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**Present**

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

That was the issue, Harry thought standing still. He was thrown into a mess of hope and illusion, none of which was relevant right now because, he realized, he was still clinging onto the future that he would never have with Draco.

It was like he was subconsciously telling himself to pretend that he and Draco would still have a relationship. That there was something left for the both of them when in fact, there was nothing.

Delusions. It was scary how your worst enemy could turn out to be yourself at the worst times, Harry let out a sigh and pushed himself to take one step after another, he had to keep moving forward.

-.-.-.-.-.-.

Pretend.

Draco felt a bitter smile forming on his face as he made himself stand up straight and continue walking.

Why the blood hell not?

What was there for him to lose now?

-.-.-.-.-.-.

**End**

*Hope you guys enjoyed it. It's literally been years since I started this story and I'm sorry for the people I let down.

But yes, this is the end of the story. I had a hard time with this chapter trying to portray accurately the things I wanted to and for some it may come as awkward. But it's the way it is.

Comments are appreciated, and for those of you who have left a comment, thank you very much :) It's made me very happy.


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